Waiting on You
by LemonStar
Summary: ..Daryl/Beth.. AU - no zombies. Beth needs to get away from everything and gets into her car, just driving with no destination in mind. She finds herself in a small Georgia town in the middle of nowhere and decides it's the perfect place to start over - especially when she gets a job at the town's diner and sees one of the regulars, sitting in his corner booth every night.
1. Part One

**Just what I need. Another story to work on but this will be a short one - probably just a few parts - and I couldn't get the idea of my head so despite having others to work on, I had to get this out. **

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**Part One. **

She loads the last bag into the back of the car and slams the trunk shut with a sigh of finality. She looks up at the house as she then walks to the car door. She has never left home. When she graduated from high school and all of her friends were going off, either to college or to find jobs, she had decided to stay behind. Her mother had passed away and her daddy needed all the help he could get with the farm. She just assumed she would get to college one day. It wasn't like it was going anywhere. And besides, nothing was more important than family.

But then, just like that, her daddy dies, too, and she sits in the lawyer's office, holding hands with her older sister, Maggie, as the lawyer goes over Hershel Greene's last will and testament. He wasn't a rich man but he had money and it is split equally between the girls.

But the farm, that has been left to Maggie and only Maggie. Not even a portion of it is left to Beth and Beth sits there, letting the words register in her brain because for a moment, she sits there and doesn't understand. She had worked on the farm just as long and hard as Maggie but for whatever reason, her daddy hadn't seen her fit to work on the farm any longer.

A part of her isn't really all that surprised. Deep down, a part of her has always known that Maggie was her daddy's favorite.

Maggie comes from the house now, her eyes red. She had been crying ever since Beth told her that she was leaving but nothing her older sister could say to her could convince her to stay. What is there for her to stay for? This isn't even her home anymore and she refuses to stay and be Maggie's guest – though she knows Maggie would never ever think her to be as such. But it's what's in her head and she can't get past it. She's hurt, damn it, and angry and she's not going to pretend she's not.

Maggie sniffles and Beth is relieved when she hugs her and doesn't say a word about her staying. The conversation and arguments and pleas have been run into the ground. Beth's mind is made up and there's nothing more to say.

"You'll call me when you get there?" Maggie asks as Beth hugs her tightly in return.

"I don't even know where I'm going," Beth reminds her.

"I know," Maggie sniffles again and pulls her head back. "But call me all the same."

"I will," Beth instantly promises and she and Maggie kiss one another on the cheek before Beth turns and gets into the car.

She drives down the front dirt drive and doesn't look back in her rearview mirror once. She refuses to look back.

…

She has absolutely no plan or even an idea as to where to go and she simply points her car in a direction and begins to drive west.

She drives most of the day, taking random exits just because she can, driving down any road she comes across and feels like turning on. She had never driven like this – and she assumes most people haven't. Just driving with absolutely no destination. She has no idea where she's going or what will be waiting for her at the end of it but she keeps her foot on the gas and the anticipation of what it could be keeps her driving forward. She has no idea when she'll stop. Maybe she'll drive straight to California and only stop when the Pacific is visible through her windshield.

When she finally does stop, it's only because her gas light is on and she's driving practically on the 'E' and she is yawning more and more with each passing second.

She's in a small town – somewhere near the border, still in Georgia, almost in Alabama – and she manages to just make it into the one and only gas station. She fills her tank and looks around as she stands at the pump. Typical small town with shops lining the main street with houses lining the side streets. Everything is quiet even though it's not that late out and she sees a diner up ahead a few blocks, light still pouring from the windows.

There is a motel right across the street from the gas station and she goes there first. A man with thinning blonde hair and a handlebar moustache is standing behind the front desk, watching a wrestling match on his small television.

When the bell above the door tinkles and he turned his head to see who entered, his eyes lit up. "Well, hello there beautiful," he beams and her steps falter for a moment but she looks at him and doesn't feel nervous so she smiles faintly at him.

On the counter, there is a nameplate – Axel – and she can only assume that this is the man's name.

"I'm figurin' you would like a room for the night?" He asks, still smiling, and is holding a pen out for her, pushing a guest book towards her.

"Yes, please. Been driving so long, I feel like I could fall asleep right here," she says.

"Come a long way?" He asks and she notices that his smile never falters.

There is something about him that makes her want to smile, too. Perhaps his overly-thick accent that reminds her of so many people she had grown up around. Or his eyes. He actually has quite kind eyes and she never doubts a person's eyes.

"Just from the other side of the state. A little bit southeast of Atlanta," she says. "How much is a room for the night?"

"Twenty even," he says and hits a button on a cash register beside him.

She hides her surprise that it's that cheap and she takes the twenty-dollar bill from her purse, handing it towards him. In return, he hands her a key with a piece of orange plastic hanging on it – the number 2 stamped on it.

"After _Psycho_, people get uncomfortable stayin' in motels and being in the first room," he explains and that actually makes her laugh a little. "Let me know if you need anythin'. Room has fresh sheets and towels. The air-conditioner is just a wall unit but feel free to turn it on as high as you want."

"Thank you, Axel," she smiles and he beams as if he is pleased she used his name.

She leaves the office and hears thunder rumbling in the distance and feels the wind starting to pick up. She hurries to her car and goes to the back, pulling out the bag she knows she needs, and locks it back up, making sure the alarm beeps.

She gives Axel a wave through the open door, smiling as he shouts "Sleep well, darlin'!", and then she goes into the motel room that is hers for the night.

She locks the door behind her and is barely able to take off her boots before she collapses onto the bed and within minutes, she is sound asleep.

…

When she wakes up again, she can tell it's still too early judging by the pinkish hue of the light coming in through the window blinds she hadn't closed the night before.

She rolls onto her back and blinks up at the ceiling, painted white and cracked in a few places. She has absolutely no idea where she is and she still has no idea where she is going but right now, in this moment, this is as good a place as any.

…

There's a new man behind the front desk in the motel office – a large black man with a shaved head and a frown but his face eases a bit when she steps in and smiles a bit hesitantly at him. The name tag now says Oscar.

"Good morning," she greets.

"Morning," he nods his head towards her. "Room two. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yes. The water pressure in that shower is amazing," she says.

"Had a man come out a couple of weeks ago to fix them all," he replies.

"Well, tell him job well done for me." She flashes another smile. "I was hoping to get my room for another night." She holds out another twenty-dollar bill.

"It's twenty a day or five days for eighty-five," he tells her.

She pauses for a moment. Spending five days here? Where exactly is here anyway? And it's not like as if she has anywhere else she has to absolutely be.

She thinks about it for another minute more before she hands him more money and he hands her five dollars in change.

She smiles, slipping it into her purse. "Where's a good place to get some breakfast?"

…

Turns out there is only really one place to get breakfast in Evergreen, Georgia.

The diner she saw the night before from the gas station. Tree Top Café and she heads there with a slight bounce in her step. The sidewalks are still wet from the storm the night before and it has brought in a bit of a cold front in with it. She tightens the scarf she is wearing around her neck and wonders if Maggie got the same storm. She really needs to call her.

Inside, another bell tinkles above her head when she steps through the door. It's slightly crowded – all of the tables at the windows taken. A waitress with black curly hair walks by with a tray loaded down with plates in her hand.

"Just take a seat wherever. I'll be right with you!" She called out as she passed.

Beth finds a stool at the counter and sits down, taking one of the laminated menus sticky with syrup from where it is propped between the ketchup and mustard bottles. It has the typical diner offerings and after picking out what she wants, she looks around. The place is small, linoleum and chrome and red upholstery. Silverware clinks against plates and glasses and the conversations are all hummed and meshed together. Through the window looking into the kitchen, she sees a stout black man singing along to a Smokey Robinson song playing on the radio.

"Hi," the waitress appears behind the counter on the other side of her, smiling and sounding a bit breathless. Her smile is bright and shows her white teeth and Beth smiles instantly in return. "You know what you want?" She pulls out an ordering pad and a pen she has stabbed in her hair.

"The chocolate chip pancakes," Beth orders. "And how many sausage links are there as part of the side order?"

"Three."

"Can I just get two?"

"You got it. Anything to drink?"

"Apple juice."

She finishes writing and turns around, slipping the ticket through the window.

The man sitting on the stool beside Beth isn't paying attention as he talks to his companion with wild gestures and his elbow is pushing his plate closer and closer to the edge. Within a second, it is falling from the counter but Beth reacts quickly and grabs the plate before it can smash to the ground, all of the food remaining on it except for one lone bit of hash brown plopping onto the floor.

"Here you go," she smiles at the man, setting it back down.

"Wow," the waitress, having seen, smiles. "T, did you see that?" She calls back over her shoulder towards the window where the cook is also watching.

"Damn impressive," he nods and looks right to Beth. "You looking for a job?"

She almost blurts out "no" but she catches herself before she can. The money she has won't last forever and eventually, she will have to live somewhere and work somewhere and it seems like working at the Tree Top Café is as good a place as any.

…

The café is owned by Theodore Douglas though everyone calls him T-Dog and the waitress is Sasha and she helps Beth find a blue and white uniform in the back that fits.

"We used to be able to wear jeans but there was a waitress here who kind of took that to the extreme, holes in very strategic places," Sasha said. "T had to put his foot down but the uniforms aren't that bad."

"You start tomorrow night," T-Dog tells her and she's nervous but excited and she leaves the diner to head back to the motel so she can call Maggie.

Maybe if Maggie finds out they're still in the same state, she will feel a little better. Beth can even promise her that she can occasionally visit.

…

Oscar is still working the desk when she comes in and she places a Styrofoam container down in front of him. "Chocolate chip pancakes. I'm stuffed," she says.

Beth considers it a triumph when she gets Oscar to smile.

…

She has gotten a few groceries at the single grocery store in town and the bag is swinging back and forth at her side when she comes upon the motel to find a police car in the parking lot, the blue and red lights flashing. Axel is standing just outside his office and one of the officers is handcuffing one man while the other officer is speaking to another man a few feet away.

Axel spots her. "Beth!" He waves her over.

It seems like everyone looks at her at the same time and her eyes sweep across them all, her eyes lingering on the man not being handcuffed at the moment. He has shaggy dark hair and a scruffy face and he wears jeans with a hole in the knee and a flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off. She can't help but look at his arm muscles. Good god, she never considered herself a girl into muscles but that man had the hottest arms she had ever seen.

And then, as if she thinks he can read her thoughts, she ducks her head down and hurries to go stand beside Axel, her face feeling hot.

"What's going on?" She asks him, handing him the pear he asked her to get him.

"If you plan on stayin' in Evergreen, those are two you should know about. Merle Dixon," he points to the man in handcuffs now being tossed into the back of the cop car as he screams every curse word in the English language. "And his younger brother, Daryl," he points to the other man standing in the parking lot and Beth's eyes float over to the man again.

She nearly gasps when she sees him staring at her already and she quickly drops her eyes, feeling a fluttering in her stomach. Daryl Dixon. She says his name to herself as if wanting to test it on her tongue.

She lifts her eyes again and is relieved to find him no longer looking at her, instead looking back to the police officer, the two engaged in a rather intense conversation – or rather, the officer seems to be doing all of the talking and it seems like Daryl is only giving the occasional answer, his eyes drifting back and forth to his brother still screaming from the cop car and back to the officer.

"I take it they're bad news?" She asks, turning her head towards Axel.

"The worst," Axel nods before taking a bite of his pear.

The worst. Beth repeats that to herself. The worst. She keeps looking at him and sees the police officer clap a hand on his back in not at all a harsh way. It seems almost friendly. If Daryl Dixon really is the worst, why did that officer seem to be so friendly with him? The worst. No. Not Daryl. She doesn't even know him and yet, she had gotten a look at his eyes as she passed. She never doubts a person's eyes.

And Daryl Dixon has the most intense and beautiful blue eyes she has ever seen.

…

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**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	2. Part Two

**Thank you so, so much for all of the reviews, favorites and follows. I am so excited for this story and this chapter sort of just flew out of me this morning. I will be working on this one and _From Afar. _As for _Not a Bad Thing_, I am NOT abandoning that story. At the moment however, it is difficult for me to write the zombie stories so I'm going to focus on other things at the moment. **

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**Part Two. **

T-Dog needs help with the dinner shift since he fired the last waitress – the one with the strategic holes in her jeans – and Beth's shift is from four until they close at ten. She had been a waitress in high school at a small restaurant like this in her hometown but she only worked there for two weeks and quit the instant a customer had grabbed her butt and the manager hadn't done anything about it.

She isn't sure what she is expecting but her first shift working at the Tree Top Café isn't too crazy. It's busy and she is the only waitress but that just means that all of the tips are for her. T is the cook for breakfast and lunch but there is a different cook in the kitchen for dinner and Caesar Martinez is a flirt but she sees the wedding ring on his finger and hears him talking in Spanish to his wife on the phone in a gentle tone and Beth knows he, like Axel, is perfectly harmless. His eyes are dark and kind.

She meets so many people that first night, all welcoming her to Evergreen and asking how long she is going to be staying and where she is originally from. She gets the feeling that not that many people show up in Evergreen unless they took a wrong turn somewhere and got horribly lost.

…

At nine-thirty, there hasn't been customers for the past hour and Beth is starting to sweep when the door opens and the bell tinkles and _he_ walks in. He pauses and looks at her and Beth feels the breath catch in her throat as she looks back at him.

He goes to sit down at the far booth in the corner of the café and she quickly sets the broom aside to go to his table. Her heart is pounding in her chest and she forces herself to take a deep breath but just the idea of looking into those eyes again, she feels her stomach rolling over again and again.

"Hi," she smiles at him. She is holding the order pad and she pulls the pen from the small apron tied around her waist. "Do you know what you'd like?"

He looks at her for a moment and she feels her throat grow dry. "Thought Sasha was still handlin' the dinner shift," he said. He speaks in a low drawl, his voice rough and gruff and Beth can feel actual goose bumps break across her skin at the sound of it.

She would pay to listen to this man read the phonebook.

"Nope, sorry about that but you have me now," she gives him a smile. "I'm Beth."

He just keeps looking at her and doesn't say anything and she is suddenly relieved she hasn't stuck her hand out for him to shake like she nearly did.

"Just have Martinez make me a grilled cheese," he says.

"Is that going to be enough?" She hears herself blurt out and when he looks at her, she feels her cheeks warm. "I just mean… for a man like you, you need to eat more…" she clears her throat awkwardly. "Would you like fries with that?"

He just nods and doesn't say anything, his eyes still on her.

She hurries away as quickly as she can without tripping over her feet and she slips the ticket through the window towards Martinez. She does her best to not look towards the corner booth again, instead choosing to keep herself busy by wiping down the counter. She really has to stop blurting out whatever is on her mind. It's been a terrible habit she has had for her entire life no matter how many disapproving looks her mother or father would give her when she said something considered rude or wildly inappropriate. But what she said to Daryl Dixon, it hadn't been rude. Maybe inappropriate but most definitely embarrassing for her.

When Martinez hits the bell, she goes to fetch the plate of French fries and the grilled cheese sandwich and with a deep breath, she carries it to the table, placing it down in front of Daryl.

"There you go," she does her best to smile. "Anything else?"

"You never asked me what I wanted to drink," he grunted.

"Oh my gosh," her face instantly warms. "I am so, so sorry. What would you like to drink?" She asks.

"Coke," he answers, grabbing the bottle of ketchup.

She goes to fill a glass and brings it back to him as quickly as she can.

"I am so sorry about that," she says but he ignores her as he has already begun to eat and she slips away, returning back behind the counter.

"Kitchen's cleaned up and closed," Martinez says as he steps out, flashing her a grin. "If anyone else comes in, tell them tough shit."

Beth smiles a bit easier now. "I don't think I'll say that to them."

Martinez just gives her a wink and she watches as he goes to the corner booth, sliding onto the bench seat across from Daryl. She pulls the bag from the trash can and heads out into the back alley to toss it into the dumpster. When she enters again, she can't help but hear their conversation, the rest of the diner so quiet.

"T that desperate for a waitress, he just hires the first girl from off the street?" She hears Daryl asking.

Before she can stop it, she feels her stomach drop at that.

"Beth's good. She handled the dinner crowd all by herself," Martinez replies. "Just probably thrown off by your sparkling personality," he then grins.

"What's she even doin' in Evergreen anyway?" Daryl asks.

She hides herself in the back hallway, fading into the darkness, and she sees Martinez shrug as he leans across the table, snatching a French fry and just grinning at the narrowed eyes Daryl shoots at him.

"Probably just running away from something," Martinez said. "Didn't ask. It's none of my business but why else would a girl like her wind up in a place like this?"

Daryl shakes his head at that. "Seems like the kind of girl who's never had to work a day in her life. Prob'ly just ran off 'cause her daddy stopped givin' her money."

Beth feels her fists clench at her sides and hot angry tears flood her eyes. Daryl Dixon has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. He doesn't even know her. Doesn't know the first thing about her. How dare he just makes assumptions about her while she hasn't done the same about him despite what Axel has told her!

She has a right to march right over there and give Daryl Dixon a piece of her mind.

But she doesn't do that. Something holds her back. Maybe it's because she's so new here and this is her first night and a part of her is a little nervous around him – not just because of his voice or how good looking he is but maybe it is somewhat because of what Axel had said the night before.

Instead, she walks to the table and looks Daryl straight in the face. He looks up at her and almost looks embarrassed because she knows that he knows she had heard.

"Anything else?" She asks, taking his empty plate.

Martinez is just grinning though, looking back and forth between Beth and Daryl. "Kitchen's closed, Dixon," he reminds him.

Daryl looks at her and doesn't say a word. He just shakes his head. Beth rips his ticket off and sets it on the table and without a word to him, she turns and goes into the kitchen to wash off his plate and put it on the rack to put it through the washer.

"Night, Beth!" Martinez shouts out a minute later and she hears the bell tinkle.

When she comes out, they are both gone. She walks over to the table and sees that for a bill of $5.75, Daryl has left her a ten dollar bill. Beth takes it and puts the entire thing in the cash register without taking the tip out for herself.

Daryl Dixon can just keep his money.

…

"Hi, Oscar," she smiles as she enters the office the next morning.

He just grunts and doesn't take his eyes from the television. He is watching a morning show cooking segment.

"Do you mind if I buy curtains for my room?" She asks. "The ones in there now aren't thick enough and I'm convinced anyone can see in even when I have them shut."

"No one's walking past your room," Oscar finally looks at her.

She gives him a smile. "I know but it'd make me feel a little better. Do you mind?"

Oscar shrugs, his eyes back to the television. "Do what you want. It's your room for the next few days."

Beth just smiles and thanks him and heads out into the warm Georgia sun with her new task for the day.

…

After finding some mint green curtains at the Dollar General store, she is walking back to the motel when she passes by a flower shop – beautiful flowers on display in the front window and she can't help but go inside.

There is a thin woman with long brown hair standing behind the counter. She smiles when she sees Beth. "Good morning," she greets. "You're Beth," she then says.

Beth smiles and nods. "Were you at the diner last night?" She tries to remember her.

"No," the woman smiles. "_Very_ small town. I'm Lori Grimes. The Sherriff is my husband. I'm sure you'll see him around. He's a regular at the diner."

Beth smiles and shakes her extended hand, instantly liking this woman.

"Can I help you with something?" Lori asks.

"Yes," Beth says and then laughs a little. "Do you have cactus? I'm staying at the motel and I want to get something silly for-"

"Oscar," Lori finishes for her with a knowing nod and Beth nods, too, giggling a little. Lori smiles and steps out from behind the counter.

"I've made it my personal crusade to get him to smile more. He's so big, he's intimidating enough with the scowl," Beth says as she follows Lori to a table set up against the back wall – pots of cactus and succulents cover the entire surface.

"Oscar and Axel served time at the penitentiary at the same time," Lori says. "Nothing violent," she then quickly adds. "Just stupid mistakes men make sometimes. Axel is from here and they became such good friends while locked up that when they got out, Oscar didn't have anywhere to go and Axel brought him home with him like some stray puppy. Oscar is harmless. He's just been through a lot." She then pauses before clearing her throat a little. "A lot of people in this town seem to have been through a lot."

Beth chooses a prickly pear cactus and promises Lori that she will stop by tomorrow so Lori can take her on an official tour of Evergreen – "which will take all of five minutes", Lori laughed – and when Beth gets back to the motel, she sets the cactus down on the front desk in the office in front of Oscar.

"Reminded me of you," is all she says.

And as she leaves the office, she swears she sees the corners of Oscar's mouth twitch. She practically skips her way back to her room.

…

She refuses to ask for help. She helped her mom hang curtains before and this is something she can certainly do on her own. She is not some spoiled brat who can't do anything. But the chair she's standing on is wobbling beneath her and the screws already in the wall aren't lining up right with the new curtain rod she had bought as well and this is becoming much harder than she thought it would be.

She can see herself falling off this chair and breaking her neck, dying in Evergreen, Georgia, smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Maggie will be so pissed.

"What the hell are you doin'?" A voice suddenly asks her and she nearly topples.

She presses her hands against the wall to steady herself and then looks towards the door, which she has left open to allow the night breeze into the room, and when she sees who it is, she can't help but narrow her eyes at him even though her heart instantly begins pounding faster.

"What are you doing here?" She can't help but ask.

"I'm stayin' here for a while now," Daryl answers, frowning at her. "Don't worry," he cuts in when she opens her mouth to reply. "Room six. Plenty of distance 'tween us."

She goes back to narrowing her eyes at him.

"Are you tryin' to kill yourself?" He then asks.

And she knows he has no idea – how could he possibly have any idea? – but the question makes her bristle and the inside of her left wrist always covered by bracelets begins to burn.

"I'm trying to hang these," she sighs at him.

"Failin' pretty miserably at it, too, from the looks of it," he says.

She sighs again. "Can you please just leave me alone?" She asks but no sooner has the request left her mouth that she shifts her weight and the chair begins wobbling again beneath her. She feels herself begin to fall and clenches her eyes shut, bracing her body for the impact on the floor.

But she never falls. Instead, she feels something warm and heavy on her hips and she opens her eyes to see Daryl Dixon steadying her, his hands on her hips. She looks at him and as if noticing what he's doing, his hands are instantly gone and all she can feel is the burning on her skin from his touch. Her heart is still pounding and she feels an instant ache between her thighs. She quickly looks away, hoping he can't read her thoughts.

"Get down," he orders gruffly. "Bad for business if a girl dies in one of the rooms."

She doesn't argue this time as she steps down as carefully as she can from the chair.

Daryl takes her place and she wonders how he is so much steadier than her on the same chair. He looks down at her and without her needing him to tell her, she hands him the screwdriver. She watches him as he works quickly and silently, easily hanging the curtain rod over the window and she can't help but smile as the curtains fall over the window, hanging seemingly weightlessly, dancing in the slight breeze.

"Thank you," she says to him genuinely with a soft smile. "I've helped my mom do it before but I guess she just made it look so much easier than I thought."

He nods and doesn't say anything as he hands her back the screwdriver.

"It's actually Axel's," she said. "I borrowed it from him."

"It's actually mine," he said. "Left it here once and Axel kept it for 'imself."

"Oh!" She's not sure why but she feels her cheeks flush. She holds the screwdriver back out to him. "Well, back to the rightful owner then. Thank you for letting me borrow it."

He stuffs his hands in his pockets without taking it. "Keep it," he grunts. "Never know when you'll need one again."

And without another word, he turns and leaves the room.

She turns away so she doesn't watch him go. She tries to remind herself that she is still angry with him for those things he said about her in the diner last night and she tries to ignore the way her hips are still burning from his all-too brief touch.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	3. Part Three

**There seriously isn't a number high enough to thank all of you for the response and support you have shown with this story. I can only say thank you so, so much and I hope you all know how much it means to me. **

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…

**Part Three.**

There is something about Evergreen, Georgia. Maggie used to find their small town absolutely stifling and couldn't wait to go away to college. It had surprised everyone when she graduated and came back home to stay.

But Beth has always loved living in a small town. She doesn't like the small town gossip but she loves knowing almost everyone and exchanging smiles and hellos when she walks down the sidewalk. She loves the feeling that comes with it. She has never been able to explain it but she loves the feel she gets when she wakes up and feels the sun on her face and hears the birds singing and there are no other noises than that. In the small town, she feels like they're the only place in the world.

She has been in Evergreen for over a week now and has handed Axel and Oscar another eighty-five dollars for five more days to keep her room at the motel. She certainly doesn't have that many expenses. Being the only waitress at the Tree Top for the dinner crowd is certainly nice and all she needs to buy really is food. She no longer drives her car, not really needing to since Evergreen is so small, and it's not like she has utility bills to pay.

She talks with Maggie and Maggie finally must be feeling brave enough because she asks if Beth is going to be staying there. Beth waits for only a moment before she smiles a little. All she can say is that things are going pretty well for her here.

…

Daryl comes in every night. Usually around nine and Beth wonders what he is doing that he can't come until such a late hour when they are so close to closing for the night. But she doesn't ask because she doesn't ask him anything except what he would like to eat and drink. She makes sure she never forgets him to ask what he wants to drink ever again.

And he doesn't speak to her either except to grunt out his order. Sometimes, when he needs a refill, he'll just lift his glass and shake it back and forth, the ice clinking from side to side, and she goes to get it, filling it with more Coke and then bringing it back to him, all without either of them ever exchanging a word with one another.

He still leaves her tips but he never stays for change and she never takes them, always putting all of the money into the cash register.

…

She can't explain it but like Evergreen, there's something about Daryl Dixon, too. As she keeps staying in room two, he is still staying in room six. Sometimes, she will see him sitting outside, smoking a cigarette or just sitting and not doing anything and he seems as if he's in deep thought but she never approaches him.

She still feels flutters in her stomach every time she's near him and she is still convinced that she has never heard a voice better and every time he speaks, she still gets those damn goosebumps fleshing across her skin but the truth is, he makes her nervous. It isn't because Axel had said he is the worst news. Even if she thinks he is an incredibly rude person, she doesn't believe for a second that he is a bad man.

But still, when he stares at her, his face is blank and she has no idea what he's thinking and it makes her nervous because she knows if he actually does say something to her, she won't be prepared. One thing about him that she does know is he doesn't seem to like her. She isn't entirely sure what she did to him except forget his drink order her first night at the diner but she feels that didn't warrant the comments he had made about her to Martinez or the way he always seems to be scowling whenever she is near.

Beth has always hated the idea of someone disliking her or even hating her. She has always been the sort of person who just needed everyone to like her if not love her. Her dad had said she had to stop trying to be a people pleaser but she had never been able to help it. She didn't see what was ever wrong with wanting to be liked.

But with Daryl clearly disliking her so much, she tells herself that for the first time, it's okay that someone can't stand her.

Can't win them all and she thinks of this quote by Dita von Teese that she always loved. You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches. She tells herself that Daryl hates peaches.

That's what she tells herself anyway.

…

Lori invites her to a Sunday afternoon barbecue and Beth is only too eager to go. She has spent a little bit of time with Lori Grimes since meeting her and she has grown to really like her; maybe even consider her somewhat a friend even though they are still getting to know one another.

She shows up to the Grimes' house with a bottle of wine and a bouquet of sunflowers that she had gotten at the grocery store – but she won't tell Lori that – because she knows that sunflowers are Lori's favorite and Lori answers the door with a bright smile on her face and she exhales a soft sigh of relief.

"You came," she says and steps aside so Beth can enter the house.

"Was I not supposed to?" Beth laughs. "Got the night off and everything."

They both know that isn't true. The Tree Top café is closed on Sundays because even though T-Dog knows how much money he would be able to make from Sunday breakfasts, he is also a deeply religious man and is at his church the whole day and doesn't believe that any of his employees should work on the Lord's Day. Her daddy probably would have really liked T-Dog.

"No, no," Lori smiles. "I knew you would come. I just was worried especially since I felt like I had maybe bullied you into coming."

Beth smiles and shakes her head. "You didn't bully. You were firm," she says and Lori laughs. "And I don't have a kitchen at that moment so I couldn't bring anything. I miss baking," she then admits.

Lori takes the wine and flowers. "You did not have to bring anything, Beth."

"It is rude to show up to someone's house empty handed," Beth recites what her mother always used to say and Lori smiles.

"Well, thank you so much. And anytime you want to bake, you come and can use my kitchen and make anything you want. Trust my. Rick and my kids will love you," Lori says and Beth laughs and knows that Lori truly means it. "Come on. I'll take you to the back and you can meet everyone here."

Beth follows Lori through the home, into the kitchen and through the back patio door. She recognizes Lori's husband, Rick, the Sherriff. He has been in the diner a few times during her shift, always taking his dinner meal with Daryl. It had surprised her the first time it happened just because of what Axel had said but if the Sherriff was friendly with Daryl, honestly, how bad could the person be?

And knowing of their friendship, that isn't why she's surprised when she sees Rick standing at the grill on the back deck and Daryl is standing next to him.

Apparently, she can't get away from him.

…

Lori's best friend, Andrea, and Rick's best friend and partner, Shane, are both there as well and apparently, this whole barbecue is a ruse to set the two of them up. Lori whispers it to Beth as she and Beth go to the cooler for a drink.

"Shane sleeps around a lot but so does Andrea, to be honest," Lori tells her. "Rick and I think they should just sleep together. They have more in common than you would expect. Hopefully, they realize that."

Beth nods and won't comment on how she has felt Shane's eyes scanning her body up and down and lingering on her breasts and ass ever since she got here. The whole thing makes her uncomfortable and she is sure to keep her distance from him.

And occasionally, she will look over to Daryl to see him looking at her, too, his jaw always clenched and his face constantly in that pissed off scowl that she hates and she frowns back at him. She wants to walk up to him and ask him what his problem is with her but she knows that even if she does, he'll just keep scowling and not answer. So she keeps her distance from him, too, and reminds herself that she doesn't care and Daryl Dixon can just keep glaring at her if he wants to.

…

Judith Grimes is the most adorable baby she has ever seen and she seems to take an immediate liking to Beth from the first instant she picks the baby girl up. Lori warns her that Juju can be a bit cranky when she wakes up from her nap and she is more than a little surprise when Beth lifts her from the crib and Judith does nothing but smile. After that, the only time she is fussy is when Beth tries to set her down again.

Rick has grilled hamburgers and chicken breasts and they all sit down at the picnic table, Judith insisting on sitting in Beth's lap, and someone, Daryl has wound up sitting next to her as Rick and Lori have pushed Shane and Andrea to sit next to each other in what they thought was a subtle move.

Beth ignores the slight tugging in her stomach with Daryl sitting right beside her and his arm brushing past her on occasion. Seriously. Doesn't this man have any shirts with the sleeves still on them?

"You sure you wanna eat this, Dixon?" Shane says from across the table. "You didn't actually kill anything on this table did you? Didn't think you would eat anything if you didn't put a bolt through it first."

"Chicken's a lil' dry," is all Daryl says.

Rick smirks and shakes his head. He then looks to Shane. "Daryl brought over the deer meat that I bought half of from him but we're saving that for another occasion," he says.

"You hunt?" Beth hears herself ask before she can stop herself.

Daryl doesn't answer. He just keeps chewing his food and gives his head a slight nod.

"Everyone knows Daryl's the best hunter and tracker in the county," Andrea speaks up. "If you ever get lost in the woods, you won't really ever be lost with Daryl on your trail," she says.

Beth feels a little surprised but she's not really sure why because hearing that Daryl is a hunter and a tracker, it just makes perfect sense.

"I've never tried deer," Beth then says.

That starts a conversation between Rick, Lori, Shane and Andrea about some of the best deer they've ever had and Shane starts telling his own hunting stories and Beth sits there and notices that Lori is laughing a little too much at what Shane is saying and she notices that Andrea's eyes keep resting on Daryl and lingering on him. She notices these things and wonders if she is the only one to.

Judith wiggles on her lap then and smacks her hands on the table, giggling to herself in baby talk, and Beth is grateful to her for the distraction.

…

At the end of the evening, she hugs Judith tightly and the baby grips on the braid in her hair until Rick gently detaches her fingers and pulls his daughter into his arms. Lori gives her a hug and Beth smiles at Carl Grimes, their oldest, promising the boy a scoop of ice cream if he comes to visit her in the café. She pretends not to notice his blush.

She parts them all good night and steps into the warm dark night and hears the front door close behind her.

"Need a ride?" Daryl grunts behind her, startling her.

"It's not a long walk," she shakes her head and she won't tell him that riding on the back of his motorcycle is terrifying since she has never been on one. She looks at the bike now he has parked in the driveway and she suddenly remembers that she has moved away from home on a whim so she can start over and maybe try new things.

She looks at Daryl climbing onto his bike and she isn't sure why he offered but she knows that the second he rides off, she is going to regret turning his offer down.

"Yes!" She calls out to him and he looks at her as she hurries over. "Yes," she says again, nodding her head.

"Get on then," he said and jerks his head to signal to her to climb on behind him.

Beth hesitates for only a moment before she climbs onto the bike, sitting close behind him but making sure she's not that close. She waits but he doesn't turn on the bike and she starts to feel herself begin to frown, wondering what's wrong.

"You gotta hold on," he then says as if reading her mind. "Don't want you flyin' off."

"Oh!" She laughs a little at herself, embarrassed, and her cheeks flush when she realizes what she has to do.

Slowly, her arms slip around his waist and her heart is pounding in her chest as she feels his hard body beneath her grip. And the second he feels her arms, he takes off with a roar and she is convinced that she can _feel_ him smirking when she shrieks.

…

She wants to ask Daryl about Shane because there had seemed to be some tension between them and she wants to ask him about if anything has ever happened between him and Andrea because she was looking at him like maybe there had been, but she doesn't ask him a thing. It definitely isn't her business.

When he comes into the diner the next night, she just asks him what he wants to eat and if he wants his usual Coke.

…

She has just gotten out of the shower when there is a knock on her door. She wraps the towel around herself and squeezes the access of water from her hair into the tub and she hurries from the bathroom, assuming it's just Oscar or Axel for one thing or another. They both like to check up on her though Axel is the only one who has come right out and said that that's what he is doing while Oscar just grunts and says they never get girls staying by themselves in the motel and he doesn't want people to think it's not a safe place.

But when she opens the door, she sees that it's Daryl. He looks surprised for a moment, staring at her with his mouth slightly hanging open, and she remembers that she is standing there, dripping wet and only wearing a towel. She feels her entire body explode in a blush and she tightens the towel around herself.

"Here," he thrusts something into her hands – a plastic container – and he will no longer look at her.

She looks at him curiously for a moment and then down at the container. She lifts the corner of the lid and is hit with such a savory aroma, seeing a few pieces of smoked meat inside. "What is this?" She asks, almost closing her eyes as she is hit with the delicious scent.

"Deer," he answers in his usual grunt and without another word, he turns and walks away and she only thinks of thanking him when he is already long gone.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	4. Part Four

**Thank you so much for reading and reviewing this story for me so far. I really love writing it and it's something a little different for me and I know I said this would be a short one but I keep getting more and more ideas for this one. I know some have been asking for it and I will also be writing a Daryl POV chapter for this story. I will be working on the next chapter of _From Afar _next. **

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…

**Part Four. **

"No."

It is the fifth time Oscar had said that but Beth is not about to be deterred. If anything, his unwavering refusal just spurns her on.

"Please, Oscar. Look how sweet he is. He won't be a problem. You know he won't be." She tries to hold the tabby cat close to Oscar's face. The man finally moves his eyes from the television screen to glance at the cat for just a moment before looking back to Beth and her smile and hopeful face.

"No."

Beth sighs but still, she is not about to give up. "I'm not asking to keep him in my room. Maybe we could put a littler box for him in yours and Axel's office back and I'll be the one to empty it. He's always hanging around, Oscar. He already lives here. He could be the motel's official mascot."

Oscar just blinks at her. "No."

"Oscar-"

"Oscar, man, you gotta do somethin' about the asshole in room five or I will," Daryl says, coming into the office. "What the hell is that?" He sees the cat in Beth's arms and his ever present frown deepens.

"It's a cat," Beth smiles at him.

"What's room five doing now?" Oscar asks.

"Is that the cat who's been killin' all the mice 'round here?" Daryl asks.

"We don't have mice," Oscar frowns.

"See?" Beth's smile widens as she looks back to Oscar. "We all have jobs to do as my daddy always used to say and keeping the motel mouse free is Mr. Tabby's."

"That is the worst fuckin' name I have ever heard," Daryl snorts.

Beth frowns at him. "Well, what would you name him?"

Daryl and the cat stare at one another, blue eyes blinking against yellow. He just shrugs his shoulders. "Cornelius," he then replies as if it's the most obvious answer.

…

Axel, of course, loves the cat and declares that he agrees with Beth. He will live at the motel and be their official mascot and the litter box can be kept in the back office.

And his official name will be Cornelius.

Beth beams, Oscars sighs and Daryl just looks indifferent to the whole thing.

…

"Can I ask you something?" Beth asks after she comes up to the corner booth where Daryl sits. He is looking over the menu and she doesn't know why because he comes here every night and looks at it every night and he knows the whole thing by heart.

"Just some chili and a slice of cornbread tonight," he says, dropping the menu back between the ketchup and mustard bottles. "And Coke," he adds.

"Can I ask you something?" She asks again.

He looks up at her. "I just answered. Didn' you hear?"

She ignores his frown. "Why does Axel seem to hate you so much?" She blurts the question out. "My first full day here, when I saw your brother… and you, Axel told me that you were the worst news and while I think you are a very surly man and seem to dislike me for absolutely no reason – which is entirely your right – although you did bring me that deer and it was so wonderfully delicious and thank you for that but I keep hearing Axel's words in my head and it just doesn't make sense."

She is well aware of the fact that she is rambling and Daryl is looking up at her with slightly squinted eyes as if she is giving him a headache.

She doesn't expect him to answer and she can't quite believe that she has mentioned this at all to him. She turns to leave but just as she does, she hears him mutter.

"The Dixon last name is a bad last name to have in these parts," he says.

She turns back to him. "But Sherriff Grimes… and Martinez and Oscar, too. They don't seem to have a problem with you whatsoever."

Daryl shrugs. "You'll have to talk to 'em if you're so curious 'bout it."

Beth looks at him for a moment but he is staring down at the table and doesn't look at her again. She doesn't say anything else and goes to get him his Coke.

…

She is sitting outside her room, the door open behind her, the light from inside spilling out into the night. She strums her guitar, tuning some of the strings, humming a random song. Cornelius sits nearby, licking his paw. Room five sounds as if it is having a party behind the closed door – yet again – music pounding, drowning her sound out, and there are loud crashes and voices. She nearly cringes every time she hears a glass break. The motel's maid, Michonne, is going to be beyond pissed when she has to clean that up tomorrow.

The door to room six opens and Daryl walks out, his face as dark as a storm, and he slams his door shut. She pauses in her strumming to look at him as he pauses to light a cigarette. He lifts his head and sees her and she slowly lowers her eyes back to her guitar, pretending she doesn't hear the gravel beneath his feet as he walks from his room towards her.

He sits down beside her with a word and she doesn't say anything either.

He exhales a cloud of smoke and rests his arms on his knees, his eyes focused out into the night. Cornelius finishes cleaning himself and Beth smiles faintly when the cat begins rubbing himself against Daryl's legs and it's surprising when Daryl doesn't push the animal away.

She begins to sing. "Nice to meet you/Where you been/I could show you incredible things/Magic, madness, heaven, sin/Saw you there and I thought oh my god/Look at that face/You look like my next mistake/Love's a game/Wanna play/New money, suit and tie/I can read you like a magazine/Ain't it funny rumors fly/And I know you heard about me/So hey, let's be friends/I'm dying to see how this one ends/Grab your passport and my hand/I could make the bad guys good for a weekend."

"You write that?" Daryl asks.

She smiles. "I wish. This is Taylor Swift."

"Do you write any music?"

"I do. Whenever I'm inspired. Unfortunately, at the moment, the only thing I'm inspired by are fried eggs and greasy cheeseburgers," she smiles a little and she thinks she sees him smile, too, but his cigarette and the mostly darkness hide it.

She strums and hums but doesn't sing again and he remains sitting there, smoking, and Cornelius curls up on the step between them. The party continues raging on but it is faded noise in the background and sitting there with Daryl, things are quiet and peaceful and she feels herself smiling a little again.

…

She gets a cold and the instant she walks into the diner, sneezing and coughing, T-Dog takes one look at her and points at the door with his burger flipper.

"Are you out of your damn mind, girl?"

He comes from the kitchen and gently pushes her to the door.

"Go home and rest and come back when you don't look like death," he says.

"I don't look that bad," she grumbles but she is so grateful to not have to work that night that she allows herself to be pushed back outside.

When she gets back to the motel, she almost feels like stopping at Daryl's door to tell him that she won't be working tonight but she has found out that he does maintenance work all over town – keeps the whole damn place from falling apart, as he says – and she knows he's not there.

When she finally gets back to her room, she collapses face down onto the bed and has just enough energy to roll herself within the comforter like a burrito before she passes out.

…

"What is going on with you and Daryl Dixon?" Sasha asks the next day when she comes over to the motel to see her, bringing a container of chicken noodle soup.

"What do you mean?"

They sit cross legged on the bed, facing one another, and she sips at her soup, feeling the hot liquid searing her sore throat and it feels so wonderful.

"T put me on the night shift last night and Daryl Dixon came in, saw me, didn't see you and I swear, he turned right back around and left," Sasha says and Beth feels her watching her closely for any sort of reaction to what she has just said.

Beth is proud of herself because she is convinced she doesn't give anything away though she is convinced she feels her heart skip an actual beat in her chest. She knows Sasha has no reason to make something like that up so just the image of Daryl walking in and not seeing her and leaving because of it, it makes the back of her neck flush. Does this mean he likes her?

No, that's impossible. Of course he doesn't like her. He thinks she's just some spoiled little princess. She annoys him and he is always scowling at her. He has these moments of niceness towards her that make her stomach flutter even more but then he will be back to frowning at her and he just seems so annoyed by her most of the time and she is reminded that he barely seems able to tolerate her.

"I don't know," Beth finally shrugs. "Maybe he just doesn't like change."

"Mmmm-hmmm," Sasha nods. "I'm sure that's it. Listen, Beth. Just… be careful."

"With Daryl?" Beth looks at herm surprised, and Sasha nods her head. "Why?"

"The Dixons don't have the best reputation around here. Daryl's dad and his older brother are pretty awful people. They did a lot of bad shit. Mostly drugs and robberies," Sasha explains.

Beth sips another spoonful of soup. "And did Daryl do any of these things?" She asks. Sasha just stares at her. "Well, you mentioned his dad and his older brother and I'm just wondering if Daryl does these things, too, or he just has the same last name."

She thinks it makes perfect sense but Sasha is looking at her like she has sprouted a third head. She then shakes her head slightly.

"Look, Beth," she says. "Just be careful. He's a Dixon and there's something in their blood that no matter how good you think they are… they aren't."

Beth sips another spoonful of soup and doesn't know what to say to that.

She knows she doesn't believe it though.

…

It is a cool night and she has the door to her room open, sitting outside again with a thick cardigan sweater wrapped around herself. Her head is tilted up and she is looking at the stars twinkling overhead and she finds herself missing the farm all of a sudden. She wonders if Maggie is looking up at the stars right then, too.

Is this what she is going to do? Live in a motel for the rest of her life and be a waitress at a small-town greasy diner? Is this what she left the farm for? She thought she would drive to California and start living a life she couldn't even imagine.

Instead, she hasn't even left Georgia and she has no idea what she is doing.

She wishes her daddy was alive for so many reasons but she really wishes he was still here so she could ask why he hadn't left her the farm. Maggie had left and she had stayed and helped him every day, putting off college to stay and help, and she was with him until the day he died. And she just doesn't get it. She knows she isn't like Maggie but he would tell her every day how much he loved her, his doodlebug, and what he wouldn't know what he would do without her.

So why, in the end, hadn't that mattered?

She hears a roar of a motorcycle nearing and seconds later, Daryl pulls into the parking lot, stopping in front of his room. He sees her sitting there and comes to her and she quickly wipes at her cheeks with her sweater sleeves.

He stops in front of her. "You a'right?" He asks and she knows that it's obvious she's been crying.

She nods, not looking at him. "Sure," she answers quietly and shortly.

She expects him to leave then, to walk back to his room and leave her sitting out here where she can cry by herself, but instead, he sits down beside her. He doesn't say anything and she doesn't say anything either. He lights a cigarette and sitting there with him, she looks back up to the stars and from the corner of her eye, she sees him looking up at them with her.

…

She drops off his cheeseburger and onion rings, setting it in front of him. "Anything else?" She asks.

He shakes his head but before she can walk away, his hand shoots out and she gasps with surprise when his fingers circle lightly around her wrist, stopping her. It's her left wrist with all of the bracelets and the scar beneath and for a panicked moment, she is convinced he can feel it. But he just looks up at her and his fingers drop away.

"I'm goin' huntin' this weekend," he tells her. He looks at her for a moment as she looks at him and then he looks down to his plate of food. "Remember you sayin' you aren't feelin' inspired lately and I was wonderin' if you wanted to go with me. Maybe bein' in the woods will help you out with that."

Beth hears the words he's saying to her and yet, she can hardly believe it; can hardly believe that he is suggesting they do something where they spend more time together.

She looks at him and imagines what it would be like in the woods with him and she remembers what Andrea said about him – how he is the best tracker and hunter in the county. She has never been hunting before. Her daddy and older brother, Shawn, used to go all of the time but that had been just for the boys and she or Maggie had never been allowed to go.

She imagines Daryl in the wood, quiet and intense like he is now but even more so while hunting and just the mental image of it makes her nearly shiver.

"Yes," she answers quickly and nods her head and she doesn't think a moment longer about it. She just thinks of being with Daryl in the woods, alone for who knows how long, and she can't remember the last time she has heard of anything more appealing.

Daryl looks up at her and he looks a mixture of surprised and relieved that she has agreed to come with him.

She doesn't think as to why Daryl would invite her to come with him but she is not going to think it to death. He invited her to come with him and right now, it's the only thing she wants to do.

There it is. Her heart has just skipped another beat.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	5. Part Five

**Finally - Daryl's POV. I wasn't planning on writing his POV initially for any of this story but I think it's now necessary for the story. Thank you to those who are enjoying and supporting this story. This one is already longer than I thought it would be and I am really enjoying writing it. **

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…

**Part Five. **

He still has absolutely no idea why he invited her to come hunting with him. He never invites anyone to come with him. It's his chance to be completely alone – though he supposes he is usually alone anyway. And that's how he prefers it. Too many people usually makes him uncomfortable and pissed off and as soon as they are around, he is already looking for his exit strategy. The woods are his sanctuary and have been ever since he was a little kid – at times feeling like he is the only one left in the world or in a different one entirely – so what the hell has possessed him to invite someone into that sacred world with him?

He tells himself that he doesn't care that she's been looking so damn sad lately.

He tells himself that there is no reason for him to care. Why the hell should he care? She's just the girl who lives in the same motel as him and brings him his dinner most nights. He doesn't know anything about her other than she plays the guitar and can write songs… and she's always trying to get Oscar to smile and Judith Grimes loves her, everyone in Evergreen seems to love her, and Carl Grimes has a crush on her… and she's the prettiest girl he's ever seen.

He shakes his head at that last thought.

…

He tells her he'll be by her room early and when he knocks on her door just a little after five o'clock on Saturday morning, he doesn't expect her to be ready.

Instead, she swings open the door just a moment later and she's already dressed and there's a toothbrush in her mouth. He gives her a quick look over and she surprises him twice in less than a minute because she's dressed pretty appropriately for a weekend hunting in the woods. Boots and jeans and a tee-shirt. Her hair is still a bit damp from her shower and she has it pulled up into her usual ponytail with a braid.

"Need somethin' warmer to wear over that," he tells her, standing just in the doorway, not entering the room.

She nods and disappears into the bathroom. He hears water running and he looks at the pack she has on her already made bed. He's like that, too. As soon as he's out of bed, he turns around and makes it. Doesn't matter if the motel has Michonne cleaning the rooms. He likes things neat and he doesn't like anyone touching his stuff. He supposes it has to do with living in such shitty places his entire life that now that he's on his own, he can be a bit of a clean freak.

Beth comes out of the bathroom again and goes to the closet where she actually has clothes hanging. She pulls down a zipped hooded sweatshirt and holds it up.

He nods once and she slips it on, zipping it fully up.

"Do you have a tent?" She asks.

"Never sleep in one," he says and he expects her to protest but instead, she just nods.

She surprises him yet again when she doesn't throw a fit about that. She just keeps quiet and slings her pack onto her back. Without a word, he takes a step back and she steps from the room, turning around to close and lock the door.

When she looks at him again, she gives him a small, hesitant smile and it's still cold that morning enough for their breath to appear in front of them.

"Do you mind if we stop somewhere so I can get some coffee?" She asks. "I'm not really a morning person."

Daryl feels himself smirk at that. "Was beginnin' to wonder why you were bein' so damn quiet."

…

He can tell she's never been hunting before. She walks too damn loud.

After stopping at the diner where they drink coffee and eat slices of toast – his usual breakfast – they then head out. They don't drive anywhere. He just walks off into the nearby woods and she follows him. But she's dragging her feet instead of lifting them and she's rustling the leaves and snapping on branches and after a half hour, he turns around, giving her a frown and she halts in place, her eyes slightly wide.

"Shufflin' like a damn dead girl," he grumbles to her.

"I am?" She asks and he can tell she's a bit confused by the comment.

He nods and he has no idea why but he reaches over and taps her knee with his fingers. "Lift your feet. You don't gotta march or anythin' but just lift your feet when you walk. Don't make nearly as much noise that way."

She nods and looks at him and her cheeks are looking a little flushed. "Alright," she said softly.

He looks at her, too, and he still has no idea why he wanted her out here with him.

…

He can hear her gasp the first time he fires his crossbow, the bolt slicing through the air and landing in its intended target, the rabbit falling to the ground.

"You ever have rabbit?" He asks her as he hooks the dead animal to his belt.

She shakes her head. "My dad and brother used to go hunting all of the time but they never seemed to be any good at it. Never brought any of the meat home with them." She is watching him as he loads the crossbow again. "Where'd you learn to do this?" She then asks him.

He straightens up and shrugs, only giving her a glance before he starts walking again and she's walking beside him now, her steps now much quieter.

"Ol' man taught me when I was younger. Sometimes, really the only way for us to eat," he says though he can't believe he had just told her that. This whole weekend seems to be filled with nothing but things he doesn't understand.

…

They stop at one of his usual spots for the night – so deep in the woods, no one seems to bother it. There is a fire pit he made a while back, surrounded by stones, and Beth watches him as he lights a fire with the wood she helped him collect.

"Wanna watch me do this?" He asks and expects her to say no and be grossed out that he would even suggest it.

But Beth nods and comes to sit beside him – too close in his opinion but he finds himself not inching away from her. She's warm and despite being in the woods all day, she smells like something sweet. Like dessert. That doesn't surprise him. Beth's the sort of girl who looks like cake, so damn sweet with a personality to match. She's even sweet to him even with him being a dick to her most of the time and he doesn't understand her because doesn't she get tired of being so damn nice to everyone?

She doesn't say a word or even flinches as he pulls out his knife and starts to skin the rabbit, pulling away the fur, working around bone and muscle, bloodying his fingers. She just watches him and the the only sound is the crackling of the fire.

And he allows himself to think that sitting there with her beside him, it's nice.

…

He roasts the rabbit over the fire and watches her as she takes her first small bite, feeling almost nervous, hoping that she likes it. And when she gives him a smile after swallowing, he finds himself smiling a little, too.

"I brought something…" she says once they've eaten all of the rabbit. "It's silly but I don't think you can go camping and _not_ do this…"

He watches curiously as she reaches into her pack. He smirks when she pulls out a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers and a couple of chocolate bars. Without a word, he gets up and finds them two more sticks, bringing them back to the fire and sitting down beside her again. He wipes his knife on his pants and then sharpens the tips of the sticks into points. She smiles as she stabs a marshmallow with each and she hums as they roast them over the fire and make S'mores.

"Never had one of these before," he hears himself confess. Beth gasps and he looks at her shocked expression. He just shrugs and doesn't say anything else.

She's quiet for a moment. "After everything you've done today, I'm glad I'm able to do at least one thing for you," she then says with a faint smile.

Now he is the one to watch her closely and quietly and she teaches him how to construct the perfect S'more.

…

He tells her to get some sleep but she smiles and shakes her head, sitting up against the trunk of a fallen tree behind them.

"It's too beautiful tonight. I just want to sit up and enjoy it for a little longer," she says. "I see why you like being out here. It's so quiet. I haven't even heard a plane fly overhead. A person could get used to the quiet like this."

He nods and doesn't say anything, leaning agains the tree beside her.

She hugs her knees to her chest and looks up at the stars in the blank ink sky through the trees. "My brother told me something so terrible once," she then laughs softly at the thought and Daryl looks at her, waiting. "He said that when you wish on a star, you're too late. That star is millions of miles away and its already dead. Just like your dreams."

He can't help but smirk and chuckle at that. "Kind of reminds me of Merle. Sayin' dick things like that."

She smiles and shrugs his shoulders. "It's all part of having an older brother." She's quiet and he feels her eyes on him. He doesn't look at her though and looks up at the stars instead. "Everyone seems to lump you and your brother together," she notes.

He shrugs at that. "My own fault. When Merle isn't in jail, I tend to follow after him. Don't do what he does but I just like to keep an eye on him, I guess."

He has no idea why he's talking about Merle with her. He doesn't talk about his brother or his family to anyone except to Rick but that's usually because Merle has gotten himself in trouble again and Daryl has to try and bail him out. But Beth is sitting there with the fire glowing on her skin and her fingers sticky with marshmallows and he knows that no matter what he says to her, she'll keep giving him a small smile and smelling like dessert and she won't just get up and leave. It's confusing to him - how comfortable he is feeling that night.

When and why the hell did he find himself trusting her all of a sudden? He doesn't even know her and he tells himself that he doesn't want her to know him. And yet, here he sits.

"So, when he gets out of jail again, you'll go back to him?" She asks.

He shrugs and doesn't answer because he supposes they both know the answer.

"I miss my sister everyday but everyday, I'm glad I was able to get away like I did. I was never just Beth Greene. I was always Maggie's little sister or Hershel's daughter. And when my daddy died… he left me some money but he left the farm – we have a farm – to Maggie. All of it. Didn't even leave me a little bit, And I guess it was finally my wakeup call to get out of there and start being Beth Greene," she says quietly.

Daryl is quiet for a moment. She's not some spoiled princess at all. He had figured that out a while ago but now, it is confirmed. "Sorry about your pops," he then tells her in the same low tone and he's genuine about it. Hopefully, she can tell that.

She looks at him then and he sees tears glassing over her eyes but she is giving him her usual small smile, too. "Thank you," she says and he looks at her, looking into her eyes, forgetting about the stars overhead because he swears, her eyes are twinkling better than anything in the sky that night.

…

They each have brought a blanket with them and they sleep on the ground next to the fire underneath the stars. When he wakes up the next morning, he sees she's already awake, stting up against the tree trunk and chewing on a marshmallow, and he's openly surprised because no one wakes up before him.

She gives him a small smile. "I didn't bring toilet paper and I didn't want to go off to the bathroom without you showing me which leaves are safe."

He hears himself actually chuckle at that and he almost tells her the story about the time he was lost for nine days and how he used poison oak leaves because at the time, he hadn't known any better, but it's too early in the day for that kind of story and he doesn't want her to stop smiling.

…

He is reluctant to leave – he always in when he's in the woods and knows he has to get back – but he finds himself even more so this weekend. He knows he doesn't want to stop spending time with Beth Greene and she walks so close to him, her arm brushes against his and he starts to tell himself that maybe she doesn't want to get back either.

But then he almost scoffs at himself. Girls who are sweet like cake don't want to spend time with him and once they get back to town, they'll go back to hardly talking with each other. Daryl tells himself he's looking forward to it.

Maybe it's time he moves out of the motel. Beth Greene mixes too much up inside of his head and he knows he hates it. Things for him can be pretty simple but this girl comes into town and suddenly, he finds himself taking her hunting with him and not wanting her to go. He doesn't know what the hell it is and he tells himself that it's something he definitely doesn't like.

…

He walks her to door number two and she pulls out her key. She doesn't unlock the door to go into her room and instead, she stands there and smiles faintly up at him.

"I had the best time this weekend, Daryl," she says, looking up at him. "Thank you for taking me."

"You're welcome," he grunts and doesn't know what else to say.

Beth looks at him for another moment and then she pushes herself up on her toes and presses her lips to his cheek in a light kiss.

…

He almost doesn't go to the diner for dinner on Monday night but he's been working all day at the elementary school, fixing the bleaches in the gymnasium that are broken and no longer retracting, and by the time he's done, he's starving. He gets to the diner a little earlier than usual – around seven – and there are still other people inside. Someone is sitting in his usual booth so he goes to sit down at the counter.

"Hey," Beth appears in front of him, her smile bright and her cheeks slightly flushed, and she sets a Coke down by his hand.

He looks at her for a moment and he isn't entirely sure how to react. He's still trying to ignore the tingling in his cheek. "Hey," he then grunts.

"You're here early. Do you know what you'd like?" She asks and she's so damn perky and happy and he tells himself that it's just Beth and has nothing to do with him. Why would he think her mood is actually because of him?

He honestly doesn't know what he has a taste for and he finds himself being pretty content with just staring at her. But then something catches his eye on the counter.

"That looks good," he comments.

He wouldn't have thought it possible but Beth's smile seems to grow even more.

"Baked it myself," she says, pride evident in her tone. "Would you like a slice?"

He almost wants to laugh. Of course this girl baked a cake.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	6. Part Six

**Oh my goodness, I am completely blown away by the response being given to this story. I don't even know what to say except thank you an infinite amount of times. **

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…

**Part Six. **

It really doesn't surprise her. After the weekend she spent with him in the woods, how could she not?

She has a crush on Daryl Dixon. Every time he comes into the diner now, she feels her face warm and her heart beats a little faster and when he comes in, she wants to talk to him and when she doesn't see him, she wonders when she will again. For his part, he is still quiet – still grunting a lot – but he seems to smile a little more. At least, this is what she is telling herself because honestly, after their weekend together, he doesn't seem to be acting that much differently towards her at all.

And the more he acts like nothing happened between them, Beth begins to think she is being silly and slightly pathetic. Maybe the night they spent in the woods together meant absolutely nothing and she's trying to see something that just isn't there.

They talked and sat by the fire together and ate S'mores and looked up at the stars and at the end of it all, she had kissed his cheek but maybe she is blowing it out of proportion. She is the type of girl who likes to talk and has no problem doing so – especially about her feelings – but she knows that Daryl Dixon doesn't talk – especially about his feelings –and she doesn't want to put him on the spot and have him shut down even more.

So she doesn't say anything and she tries her best to get her heart to slow down.

…

She takes Lori up on her offer and asks if she can use her kitchen for the afternoon and when she comes over to the house on Saturday afternoon, she sees Sheriff Grimes in the driveway, the hood of his squad car open, and Daryl is standing beside him.

"Hi, Beth," Rick smiles as she comes up the driveway.

"Hi, Sheriff Grimes," she smiles warmly in return. "Hi, Daryl," she then says, turning a soft smile on him and her dang heart is skipping beats in her chest.

"Hey," Daryl grunts and doesn't look at her and she quickly moves her eyes away as she hurries up the path to the front door.

She hears a smack and turning to look over her shoulder to see what it was, she sees Rick smacking Daryl up the back of his head and saying something to him that Daryl frowns in response.

…

"Do you need any help?" Lori asks after showing her into the kitchen and Beth begans to unpack the shopping bag she has brought with her.

"Not at all," Beth shakes her head with a smile.

"Thank goodness. I am terrible at anything that has to do with…" she waves her hand over the butter and eggs Beth have set on the counter. "This," she finishes and Beth laughs softly. Lori pours herself a glass of red wine and sits at the table.

Beth hums to herself as she begins cracking eggs and adding oil and using Lori's handmixer and she didn't realize how much she misses having an actual kitchen until she's moving around one again. Lori gets up a little while later when Judith begins crying, waking up from her afternoon nap, and Beth is left alone. She takes out the two circular cake pans and preheats the oven and flours the pans before going back to the mixing bowl, smashing in the ripened bananas now.

She hears the front door open and then a moment later, Rick, followed by Daryl, enters the kitchen.

"Smells good," Rick comments and Beth laughs a little.

"It's not baking yet," she points out to him.

Rick just grins and grabs a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and hands it to Daryl before taking one for himself. "Excuse me both for a moment. I have to talk to my wife about something," he says and then with that, he leaves the kitchen and Beth finds herself alone with Daryl.

She looks at him for a moment and he looks at her and neither say anything. She turns away then, back towards the counter, and begins pouring the cake batter into the two cake pans, ignoring the feeling of his eyes on her. She then turns towards the oven and Daryl is there, opening the door for her.

"Thank you," she says softly as she slides them onto the top rack.

Closing the door again, she sets the timer and then keeping her eyes from him, she turns and begins work on the frosting.

"You wanna go out tomorrow?" Daryl suddenly blurts out and she turns her head instantly to look at him. "With me?"

He looks nervous, almost shifting from foot to foot, his fingers grasping the neck of the beer bottle tightly. But he's staring right at her and she knows that she hasn't imagined him saying those words to her.

"Oh, yes," she hears herself breathe out and Daryl looks at her for a moment, his lips almost twitching as if he wants to smile.

…

They had both walked to the Grimes' house that afternoon so Daryl offers to walk her back to the motel and she feels as if her entire body is burning now as she accepts. Rick and Lori insist that they both stay for dinner and after they eat and they all have slices of cake, Daryl lets Beth walk out of the house first and he follows and he mutters something under his breath as Rick wishes them both a good night.

They are both quiet as they walk. The night is quiet and humid and they hear both crickets and cicadas sing. It doesn't bother her that they're not talking. She is more than content just having him walk beside her.

Back at the motel, they stop at the front office and Beth sets two plates down in fron of Oscar. "One for you and one for Axel. Banana cake with cream cheese frosting," she says, smiling brightly at him.

Oscar looks down at the cake for a moment and then at her and he smiles a little, too. Beth almost wants to laugh. So many good things are happening today and when she turns back to leave, she sees Daryl standing outside, waiting for her, and her smile only grows. This time, Daryl looks at her and smiles a little, too.

…

T-Dog has given her Saturday and Sundays off from the diner – his cousin, Jacqui, taking over the Saturday shift. She has just left her husband and has moved to Evergreen to be nearer to her favorite cousin and T is helping her get on her feet, just a shift at the diner here or there and Saturday night is actually a pretty slow night so she won't be overwhelmed.

After Daryl walks her to her door and tells her that he'll come and get her sometime around noon, she smiles and slips into the room, able to cover her face with a pillow before she starts squealing. Daryl has asked her out. She is going out with Daryl Dixon. She doesn't know why he has asked her – Rick must have said something to him – but it doesn't really matter to her. All that matters is that he is taking her out.

She feels so silly and like such a _girl_ but she can't help it.

She's happy and she feels like she hasn't been this happy in so long.

…

She knows Daryl isn't the sort to take her anywhere fancy and when she opens the door to him the next day, he is wearing jeans and a black tee-shirt and she smiles the instant she sees him. She is wearing jeans, too, and a pink blouse and he smiles a little, too, when he sees her.

He doesn't ask if she's ready. He just takes a step back so she can step out of the room, closing and locking the door behind her, and she follows him to where his motorcycle is parked. He climbs on and she climbs on behind him, her arms sliding around his waist without hesitation. And when he takes off, she feels the wind through her hair and she tightens her hold on him, resting her cheek to his back.

…

By the time they stop, her legs are numb and she shakily climbs from the bike.

"You a'right?" He asks, his fingers on her elbow.

She nods. "Just need a sec," she smiles. "My legs just need to get steady again." He nods, understanding, and his fingers slowly drop from her arm. She looks around to where he has taken them. "Where are we?" She then asks, seeing a gas station, a restaurant, and then another buidling – non-descript and she can't tell what it is.

"Don't tell T this but they have the best burgers in all of Georgia right there," he says and she smiles, laughter bubbling in her throat.

She takes his hand and she feels him stiffen almost immediately. She feels the back of her neck flush as she quickly pulls her hand away, wrapping both instead around the strap of her bag slung across her chest. She wants to apologize but she doesn't open her mouth to say anything and she doesn't look at him.

She hears him shuffle and then slowly, his hand is reaching out and he leaves it there, hanging between them. Beth looks at it and then slowly lifts her eyes to look at him. He doesn't say anything either and keeps looking at her. She gives him a small smile – shy and a little unsure – and then she takes her hand, reaching out for his and the instant she places it in his, she feels him squeezing it tightly.

His hand is rough and warm and she can't help but run her thumb in small circles along his skin. Daryl doesn't let her hand go even after they go into the restaurant and he asks for a table.

…

They sit in a booth beside the large plate glass window and he tells her to get anything she wants. She promptly orders one of the burgers and a chocolate milkshake. Daryl orders a burger for himself and a Coke.

"I thought you didn't like me," Beth hears herself confessing once their waitress has left and they are alone.

Daryl shrugs his shoulders and looks down to the table. "Just not real good 'round people. Don't always know how to act."

She nods and then smiles faintly. "I'm really glad you asked me out."

He nods slowly, too, and finally lifts his eyes to her. "Me, too."

…

They eat with Beth filling most of the conversation. She tells him all about the farm and her daddy before his passing and about Maggie. She mentions her mom and brother just a few times in passing because all of that is something she doesn't want to go into right now. And she definitely doesn't tell him about the scar on her wrist.

He doesn't say much but his eyes stay on her and he listens to every word she says.

…

He pays the bill and this time, he is the one to take her hand as they leave the restaurant and head back for his bike. He climbs on and without a word, she climbs on behind him and she feels a knot of disappointment in her stomach that the date is already finished.

…

He drives them back to Evergreen but he speeds right past the motel. She opens her eyes and watches the narrow, two-lane road is he taking them down, thick woods growing on either side of the road and she's not sure why but she's getting excited. He pulls the bike off to the side at a rather seemingly random spot and she is eager to walk beside him, her fingers twined with his as he leads them into the woods.

She hears water and he takes her to a small creek with a brown footbridge built across it. She smiles at him and he smiles a little bit, too, before she tugs him onto the bridge and she then sits down, swinging her legs over the edge and he sits down beside her. Her hand finds his again and she laces their fingers together and she looks at the water lazily flowing beneath them.

She grew up on a farm, yes, but she has never considered herself necessarily an outdoors type of girl. But just from being in these woods a couple of times with Daryl, she finds herself getting this want to always be out here in them. With him.

"Shane was gonna ask you out," Daryl says suddenly, blurting it out in his quiet voice, and Beth's head whips over to look at him. He's looking at her already. "Rick told me. Knew I kind of had a crush on you. Told me to move my ass and ask you 'fore Shane, or someone else, did."

"Shane?" She frowns a little at that. "I thought he and Andrea…"

Daryl shakes his head slightly, causing her words to trail off. "That barbecue at Rick and Lori's, we was really the two they were tryin' to set up that day."

Beth looks at him, shock clear on her face, and then she laughs a little. "Us?"

He nods, no longer looking at her. "Lori's been wantin' to set me up with someone for a long time now but… and then you come into town and she thought you were the sweetest girl. Thought someone like you would be good for me."

Beth is quiet for a moment, letting that settle in her mind, and then she looks at him.

"Did you…" she suddenly feels a nervous lump weighing down in her stomach as she tries to find the right way to word her question. "You did want to ask me out, right? You're not here just because one of your friends kind of forced you to be?"

Daryl's eyes cut immediately over to her, staring at her. "I don't do nothin' I don't wanna do," he said. She said nothing to that. "Now that you know 'bout Shane, you wish he was the one you were here with 'stead of me?"

Beth didn't even feel like she should have to justify that with a response.

She leans into him and pauses her lips a hairsbreadth from his. She looks into his eyes and he is staring into hers, not saying anything and not closing the distance between them either. She knows she will have to make the first move and yet, there is a part of her that wishes he will. Maybe she's still a bit old-fashioned and would like a man to kiss her first, to show to her that he really wants it.

Does Daryl want it? Want her?

Slowly, his hand lifts then, lightly coming to a rest on her cheek and she feels her eyes begin to flutter shut. She can feel his breath warm on her face and she wants to keep looking into his eyes and yet, she feels them sliding shut on their own accord.

_Kiss me, kiss me, please kiss me_, she pleads with him silently and she exhales softly when his thumb begins drawing circles on the apple of her cheek.

And then, just like that, his lips are being pressed against hers. The kiss is soft and light, barely there at all, but the instant she feels him kissing her, it is like in all of those romance movies she's seen and romance novels she's read. She feels actual electricity flowing from his lips to hers and she swears she hears something popping overhead. Fireworks.

She presses her lips back against his and her hands lift to his own cheeks and when he kisses her a little harder, she wants to smile and laugh and scream all at once.

But instead, her arms slip around his neck and she tries to get even closer to him and even as her lungs burn, she still doesn't pull away from him. She never wants him to stop kissing her for as something as silly as a need for air.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	7. Part Seven

**Daryl's POV will be in the next chapter. I have a few little bumps planned for Beth and Daryl in this story but really, I just wanted to write them a good old fashioned love story. **

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…

**Part Seven.**

"You sound so happy," Maggie says from over the phone and Beth hasn't even told her sister about Daryl yet. She's not sure when she will. Maybe it's too early for that. And the truth is, she's not entirely sure what she would tell Maggie.

She and Daryl, she assumes, are together. She doesn't know though just because Daryl isn't the type to have that sort of conversation and she supposes that whatever it is between them, it really doesn't need to be talked about or labeled. It just is. And she kind of loves that because she has never had any sort of relatinoship before with a _man_ and this isn't high school drama and breaking up every other week while their friends watch in the cafeteria or after gym class. Whatever she has with Daryl isn't like that at all. It's almost just like they fell into it and it's something that's natural and easy and something definitely good.

"I am really happy," Beth smiles into the phone, practically beaming.

"I'm so glad, Bethy," Maggie says but her voice is quiet and she, herself, sounds sad.

…

He still comes into the diner most nights for dinner and she bursts into a smile every time she sees him and he smiles, too, before going to his usual booth. She gets him his glass of Coke and comes to set it down in front of him and whether there are other people there or not, she will lean down and press her lips to his in a quick kiss.

She realizes that making the tips of his ears turn red is one of her favorite things.

He begins staying at the diner after he's done eating and waits while she cleans up. He got up the first few nights to help but she just shook her head and pointed for him to sit down, telling him that she could do it on her own. And then when everything's clean and turned off for the night, she locks the doors and Daryl takes her hand, walking them back towards the motel.

And every night, he stops at her door and she smiles up at him faintly.

"Thank you for walking me home," she says quietly.

"Anytime," he then says in his gruff, low voice and she lifts her hands to his cheeks, gently pulling his face closer to hers.

He stares into her eyes and she stares into his and he's always the one to close the rest of the space between them and press his lips to hers.

…

"Are you goin' to stay in this motel forever?" He asks her one night as they lay on her bed in her room – above the covers and the door open to let in the warm summer breeze from outside. Perfectly innocent, she told him with a small smile when she had suggested he come in. She knows they are nowhere near that point yet.

"I love Axel and Oscar, and Cornelius of course, but I hope not. Real estate in Evergreen is kind of sparse though," she says. "Are you going to stay here forever?"

He shrugs his shoulders then and doesn't say anything for a passing minute, staring up at the crack in her ceiling. "Merle'll be gettin' out soon," he then says.

She looks at him but he doesn't say anything else and she wants him to explain himself a bit more but at the same time, she is afraid of what he could say.

"_So, when he gets out of jail again, you'll go back to him?"_

She remembers the question she asked to him their night in the woods by the fire and she remembers how he hadn't given her an answer then either.

…

The apartment above the dentist's office becomes vacant and Sasha tells her about it because her brother works in the hardware store next to the dentist's office. The second she can, Beth goes to look at it, bringing Daryl with her. It's small but the owner has recently done some renovations and with it just being her, it's not like she needs some huge space anyway. It smells of mint toothpaste and fluoride from below and it's perfect with the sun streaming in through the windows onto the white walls and the hardwood floors.

She's glad she brought Daryl because he checks things she never would have thought to. Making sure the windows open, the plumbing drains fine, the stove turns on and doesn't threaten to start a fire. Beth, meanwhile, loves the kitchen counters and the light fixtures and the claw-footed tub in the bathroom.

"What do you think?" She asks with a smile. "It's not that much more than the motel is costing me every week."

Daryl nods, running his hand up one of the doorframes. "It's in good shape." He then looks at her. "Guess this means you're stayin'."

She nods her head and takes a few steps towards him. "Looks like it. I've really fallen in love with it here," she says in a soft voice and she feels her cheeks warm because she's not quite sure why she has said that.

He lookes at her for a moment and then looks away and she can't help but feel a little disappointed though she has no idea what she wanted him to say.

…

Axel looks downright sad when Beth moves out of room two and she thinks Oscar might look a little down about it, too. She hugs them both and thanks them for everything and she promises she will still come and see them and bring them things she has baked. And a Beth Green promise made is a promise kept.

Besides, she's just moving down the street. She jokes that it's clear she's unable to actually leave the state of Georgia.

Daryl helps her move all of her boxes from her car upstairs and even though she doesn't have a lick of furniture, she is so happy and giddy and she is spinning in circles, making Daryl snicker a little and mutter "crazy girl" under his breath.

And when all of the boxes are stacked between all of the rooms, Beth orders them pizza for dinner and they sit on the floor of what is now her living room, eating and Beth says everything she wants to do with the space while Daryl chews and listens.

"Have you ever been to Ikea?" She asks him as she grabs another slice. "You would probably love it. It's a huge home-goods furniture store and the stuff isn't too expensive because you have to assemble it yourself. I bet you would be a master at putting Ikea furniture together."

Daryl shakes his head. "Never even heard of it."

"There's one in Atlanta. Would you like to come with me? And I can take us by the farm so you could see it and meet Maggie, too," Beth suggests and she can hear the excitement in her own voice even though she tries to tell herself that there's no way Daryl will want to do any of this with her.

She almost holds her breath as he reaches for another slice of pizza.

"Alright," he gives a nod as if he sees no big deal to what he is agreeing to and Beth can't help but burst into a smile and she leans into him, kissing him on the cheek.

…

He offers to drive his pickup truck – which she didn't even know he owned – because he assumes she'll be buying a ton of stuff and she knows she will even though she tells herself to not go too crazy. She still has plenty of money left in her inheritance but she doesn't want to blow it all at Ikea in one day.

The car ride is filled with Daryl driving and Beth singing along to songs on the radio and when she looks at him, he always looks at her and she sees his lips twitching in a small smile and it just makes her smile all the bigger.

…

She takes his hand and leads him up the escalator to the second floor, explaining that they have to go around the upstairs first so they can look at all of the furniture before going downstairs to pick it all up from the warehouse-type aisles. Daryl doesn't say anything and just follows her lead and volunteers to push the cart.

She looks at all of the displays and decides what would work best for her apartment and she also chooses things based on how complex she thinks it will be to put it together. Daryl must figure out what she's doing because he shakes his head at her.

"Get whatcha want," he tells her. "Puttin' this stuff together won't be rocket science."

And Beth beams at him at that and she stands on her toes, giving him a quick kiss. Being there with him, she feels happy and giddy and she can't seem to stop smiling. She tests out the couches and pulls him down with her so he sits on all of them, too, and asks him which ones he likes. She nudges him when he just shrugs and gives him a look and he smirks a little at her. He then points to the gray couch that just so happens to be her favorite, too.

It just makes her want to kiss him again. So she does.

…

She buys a couch, a bed and a kitchen table with four chairs as well as lamps, dishes, towels and other random household items and she is so grateful for Daryl's truck because they definitely need the room.

Once leaving the parking lot, she gives Daryl directions for the farm and it is only once he is pulling up the dirt drive and she sees the big white house that she left months ago with no idea of when she would be returning, she is feeling nervous for the first time since suggesting she show him her home.

But then the front screen door opens and she sees Maggie step out and she feels tears in her eyes. As soon as Daryl parks, Beth bolts from the truck and runs right into her sister's arms, Maggie crying, too, as they embrace one another tightly.

After a few minutes, they pull away, sniffling and both laughing. She looks over her shoulder and sees Daryl standing there by the truck, his hands in his pockets. She smiles, going to him, wiping her cheeks. She then takes his arm and pulls him towards the porch.

"Maggie, this is my boyfriend, Daryl," she smiles.

She has no idea where the label has come from all of a sudden because she and Daryl certainly haven't had that conversation about what they are. She looks at him, expecting some sort of reaction to the word – and not necessarily a good one – but he doesn't seem to look phased at all.

Maggie looks at him for a moment and he looked right back and then she smiles, sticking out her hand for him to shake. He does.

"Nice to meet you, Daryl," she says. "Thanks for taking care of Bethy."

Daryl shrugs then and looks to Beth for a moment before back to Maggie. "She's been takin' care of me, too," he says.

…

Maggie has gotten herself a boyfriend, too. Glenn. And she has invited him for dinner that evening and Beth tries not to laugh but he just seems so nervous as opposed to Daryl who looks as cool as a cucumber – at least on the outside. Glenn's not like the usual guys Maggie has dated in the past but Beth sees the way he looks at Maggie, as if he worships the ground she walks on, and though Maggie isn't looking for it, Beth approves nonetheless.

"What do you think of Daryl?" Beth asks later as she is standing at the kitchen sink, helping Maggie clean up after dinner.

Both sisters look over their shoulders to where Glenn and Daryl are still sitting at the dining room table, Glenn talking about something and using a lot of hand gestures and Daryl is sitting there, not saying anything but listening.

"He's quiet," Maggie says.

"You have no idea," Beth smiles a little. "But… I don't know what it is. I don't need him to talk all of the time. I feel like I just… I get him and he gets me, too."

Maggie looks at her for a moment and Beth figures there must be something in her tone because then Maggie smiles and it almost looks like she's about to start crying. And then, despite her hands covered in soap suds, she pulls Beth into a tight hug.

…

Beth takes a few things from her room that she has left behind that she figures she can use in her new apartment and Daryl takes them from her arms, carrying them to the truck himself. Maggie walks after him and Beth begins to follow but Maggie looks at her and shakes her head.

Beth watches from the porch as Maggie goes to the truck and then begins talking to Daryl. He doesn't seem to be saying much in return but he nods his head every once in a while and Beth's eyes then widen when she watches Maggie step forward and hugs him.

…

"What did Maggie say to you?" She asks once they leave the farm and begin the drive back to Evergreen, not able to hold the question in anymore.

He shrugs and for a moment, she doesn't think he's going to answer. But then, with his hand loose around the steering wheel and his eyes on the road, he says, "Jus' askin' me what my intentions are with you."

Beth looks at him for a moment to see if he's joking but Daryl isn't exactly the sort who jokes around. "What did you say?" She asks even though she finds she's almost afraid to.

He shrugs again and doesn't look at her. "Told her that for some crazy ass reason, you're wantin' to be with me for the moment so I plan on keepin' you for as long as I can," he says and he says it so casually.

She, meanwhile, feels her heart begin pounding in her chest and she blinks at him, his words roaring in her ears.

He stops at a red light and he turns his head to look at her. She's not sure she can say anything though. She knows what she wants to say but it's still way too early for that. Isn't it? They haven't been together that long yet and they are still getting to know one another. She just can't. Not yet. It's too early.

She still doesn't know what to say but she has to do something because she can't have him say something like that and have no reaction to it and he's starting to look a little unsure with himself.

Just as the light is turning green, Beth practically throws herself across the bench seat and her arms fly around his neck as her lips smash to his. She has taken him aback for a moment but then he is kissing her back, his fingers in her hair and his lips curved in a small smile against hers.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	8. Part Eight

**I never intended for this story to be a long one and looking over the outline I have made for it, it will probably be twelve chapters. And I know a few have been asking and I will explain why Hershel cut Beth out of the farm before this story ends as well as some conflicts - mainly from other people - in the next few chapters. Thank you so much for your love and support with this one! This chapter kind of flew out of me and I never have written one quite like this. I hope it turned out alright. Thank you again!**

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…

**Part Eight. **

He's never dated anyone before. It never interested him and most women he found himself around annoyed the hell out of him. There were only certain women who ever seemed to give Merle the time of day and if those were the women who Daryl could spend his time with, he would rather spend his time alone. Big breasts and too much lipstick and daddy issues streching on for miles. Daryl wasn't interested.

But Beth isn't like that – not in the least – and sometimes, he'll just look at her because why the hell is this girl with a guy like him? She is sunshine. Her blonde hair and her bright smile and when she's around, he just feels warmer. She pushes the dark corners away from him and envelops him in her light and he finds it starting to get harder and harder to step back and not get used to it.

He tries to remind himself that this won't last. No reason why it should. Nothing good like Beth ever lasts in his life and he has just come to expect it. He knows that one day, Beth will wise up about him or just get bored and that will be that.

And he tells himself that when that day comes, he won't fight it. He'll be just fine.

…

Things with Beth are easy. He comes to see her at the diner every night and he's spending more and more time at her apartment, first helping her put all of that Ikea furniture together and then, just relaxing on her couch with her. Sometimes, she talks and sometimes, she reads and sometimes, they just watch television but her head is always on his chest and he is always playing with strands of her hair. He's pretty sure he's never felt anything as soft before touching Beth Greene's hair.

T-Dog has hired her to bake desserts for the diner after her chocolate cake was such a success and he is paying her a little bit more for it and she takes it very seriously. She bakes cakes and pies and she declares that Daryl is her official taste tester. He grumbles that she's going to make him fat but he never stops her when she places a plate down in front of him and she watches him with her wide, hopeful eyes as he takes his first bite and then his second and then his third and so on and so on until the plate is completely clean and he tells her it was alright. He says it with a smile though and she laughs, throwing her arms around him and kissing him as if she has never received a better compliment.

And he always feels so good when he gets her to laugh, the sun shining a little brighter and feeling a little warmer. Beth makes him like himself more than he ever has and it's an addicting feeling. A dangerous feeling. And he tries to reign himself in.

…

She asks him one day when it's raining softly outside and the drops tap against the window panes and the roof over their heads. He has been over for most of the day but he has to head back to the motel now and get some sleep since he has an early day tomorrow working on fixing the roof of the city hall.

"Why do you stay there?" She asks him as he sits on the couch to tug on his boots.

He shrugs. "Was stayin' in a place with Merle for a while but after…" he trails off and he looks at her as she stands near the door, her fingers fidgeting in front of her and she's looking nervous for some reason. He stands up and grabs his jacket.

"What if you move in here with me?" She blurts out and he goes still, his eyes slowly blinking at her. "I mean," she is quick to speak again. "I know it hasn't been this long," she gestures her hand back and forth between them. "But you're always here and I really love having you here and it's silly that you're spending money on a room you're hardly in anymore."

He just keeps staring at her. "We ain't even sleepin' together," he feels the need to say to her, as if she's forgotten and he has to remind her.

Her cheeks explode in a blush. "I know…" her fingers are fidgeting again.

She looks so nervous and Daryl is thinking of a thousand reasons as to why he shouldn't move in with her – tries to tell himself that he's an idiot and he shouldn't do this to himself – but he keeps looking at her and all he can think about is how he kind of hates having to leave her at the end of every night.

…

"So, how's everything going with you two?" Rick asks even though he already knows the answer if his smile is any indication.

Daryl just nods his head and takes another sip of beer. "Good."

And Rick's smile somehow seems to grow at that. "Good."

They are at the Grimes' for another barbecue and he and Rick sit in two lawnchairs, looking out into the yard as Beth sits in the grass with Judith, playing with the baby and both girls laughing, the light sound echoing through the afternoon air. Carl has his friend, Patrick, over and they're kicking around a soccer ball. Andrea is over, too, and Daryl avoids her as always. The woman is always staring at him like she wants to eat him and it has always made him downright uncomfortable. He's just glad Shane wasn't able to come to this one. He and Walsh have always hated one another and Daryl figures that not only it's because he's a Dixon and most law enforcement seem to hate him but Shane's also a little jealous of with his friendship with Rick.

"Lori's quite proud of herself. She seemed to know you two would work," Rick says.

Daryl just shrugs. "Good guess," he says and Rick lets out a laugh.

"Beth told Lori you're moving in with her. Andrea looked like she was in shock."

Daryl again shrugs because what the hell else is he supposed to do? Why does he care what Andrea does or thinks? All he knows is she better not say anything to Beth that might upset her. It's always confused him why some lawyer would like him anyway. She probably just wants to dip her toe in the dirty pool so she can go back and brag about it to her friends at the courthouse.

"You love her?" Rick asks.

"Nah," Daryl shakes his head almost immediately, his eyes watching Beth as she now seems to be trying to teach Judith some patty-cake game, laughing all the while.

He wants to say that it's way too soon to be in love with that girl but he knows, deep down, he'll probably never love her even if they're together for a hundred years.

He's a Dixon. Love – giving it or receiving it – isn't exactly in their makeup.

…

She comes to the motel with him to help him with his things though he keeps telling her that he doesn't have that much.

"You helped me move," she tells him with a smile and folds his shirts neatly and places them carefully into his duffel bag.

They hear footsteps approaching and they both turn their heads to see Axel standing there in the open door, frowning at what he's seeing.

"Beth, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asks and Daryl frowns but pretends it doesn't bother him as he goes into the bathroom to take those tiny bottles of shampoo and complimentary bars of soap.

When he comes out again, he sees Beth standing with Axel in the parking lot and whatever the man is saying, it's making her frown. She comes back a minute later just as he is zipping up the duffel bag and is slinging his crossbow onto his shoulder. She doesn't say anything and he doesn't ask. He isn't the kind of guy to ask questions. If she wants to tell him, she will.

They're climbing into the truck when Beth sighs heavily from beside him.

"Axel really hates you. Reminded me _again_ that you're the worst news and told me I'm making a mistake by being with you," she says and she's looking at him and she looks so damn sad. He can't stand it.

He sighs heavily. "Axel's wife was a junkie and Merle was her dealer," he finally tells her. "She od'd a couple years ago and died while Axel was off servin' time."

Beth is quiet for a moment, looking at him. She then shakes her head as if she doesn't understand. "But that was your brother. It wasn't your fault," she says and he can't help but smirk a little.

"Still don't get it? Me and my brother are the same person to most of the folk 'round here," he says, turning the key in the engine and starting the truck.

She doesn't say another word in the short ride back to the apartment and he's grateful for the silence.

…

She sees him without a shirt on for the first time a couple of days after he's been living there. He is just getting out of the shower, knotting the towel around his waist, and she knocks on the closed door.

"Yeah?" He answers and she misunderstands, thinking he's giving her permission to come in. And when she does, he tries to turn his back as quickly as he can but he knows she sees it by the slight wideness of her eyes.

He wants to lash out at her and shove her from the room but something else stops him and she is holding out her hand, another towel being extended to him.

"I wasn't sure if you needed another one," she said, her voice soft.

He won't look her in the eye anymore. "Just my dad showin' me some love when I was a kid," he says and he tries so hard to be casual about the whole thing because he's living with her and he knows that this would have happened eventually. And besides, he got those scars a long time ago and his dad's been dead for years.

"I have this special cream. It helps make scars fade a little," she says and she's moving towards the medicine cabinet but he stops her, his fingers lightly taking a hold of her elbow.

"Don't want 'em to fade," he says with a shake of his head and she looks at him for a moment. She's not looking at him with pity and he wonders if she has any idea how important that is to him that she's not looking at him with pity right now.

She nods as if she understands and then she steps to him. Standing on her toes, her hands light on either side of his neck, and she presses her lips to his in a kiss that makes his chest ache. When she pulls her head back, she gives him a faint smile.

They look at one another for a moment.

"Dinner's almost ready," she says and that's all she says and when she leaves the bathroom, he exhales a breath he hasn't even realized he's holding.

…

It's not as if he's been waiting for it to happen. He isn't getting impatient or pushing her into doing something she isn't ready to do. He just isn't like that.

But when it does happen, it almost feels as if this has always been inevitable between them. And maybe it has been ever since that first night when he walked into the diner and saw the prettiest girl he had ever seen and she smiled at him and forgot his drink order.

She reaches for him and he reaches for her at the same time, their mouths meeting, their hands pulling at one another's clothes and she pulls him down onto the bed with her.

He's no expert at this and he isn't expecting her to be either but he feels like throughout the entire thing, he's just following her lead. Where to touch her and kiss her, listening to her moan softly and gasp breathlessly and he learns what feels the best for her. She's slow with him, too, learning what he likes even though when it comes to Beth, he likes anything she does.

And when she's finally ready and he pushes inside of her for the first time, she gasps sharply and he freezes, thinking he's hurt her. But then she smiles breathlessly up at him and her hands slide down his back, pulling him in closer, and he looks down at her, his heart thudding in his chest.

He's never loved anything in his life but he knows that if he was capable of it, he would love Beth Greene completely.

…

Beth's good. She's just good. She's sweet and kind and he sees the way everyone who comes into the diner smiles at her and she smiles back. She always smiles back but he notices that when he comes in for dinner, that's her biggest smile.

He smiles a little back and slides into his usual booth in the corner and she comes to him, setting his coke down and bending down to give him a kiss. He thinks that those kisses might be his favorite because there's just something so comfortable about them. He's never had this with another person before in his life. This level of normality and gentleness and comfort. He has never felt comfortable around another person – not even Merle because he never knew when Merle was too high or too drunk and could be set off at the drop of a pin over anything – just like their old man. He was usually tense when around Merle and since he was always around Merle, he was always on edge.

But with Beth, she smiles at him and kisses him and teases him about the length of his hair and smells like chocolate and frosting. She's so damn sweet and everything between them is just so damn good and he keeps telling himself that this isn't going to last. There just isn't a way that he can ever keep a girl like Beth Greene.

It doesn't matter that they sleep beside one another every night and he knows she mumbles sometimes in her sleep and he starts to not wear shirts to bed because it's just more comfortable for him. It doesn't matter that she knows spaghetti and meatballs is his favorite meal or that he only drinks one beer before he cuts himself off because he never wants to drink so much, he loses control or that he sometimes goes back to the motel just to make sure Cornelius is still around. It doesn't matter that she knows more about him than anyone ever has.

He'll sometimes look at her as she sleeps next to him and her breath is soft and even besisde him and he feels too dirty to be lying in her bed with the white sheets and most nights, he has absolutely no idea what he's doing there with her. He tells himself he'll leave the next morning but he can never get himself to.

…

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**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	9. Part Nine

…

**Part Nine.**

She misses playing the piano but she has her guitar and when she has a spare moment lately, it seems like she's plucking strings and writing down music notes, humming the tunes to herself and testing them with lyrics.

"You're my muse," she smiles to Daryl because ever since this thing began between them, she has had so many words in her head that are just begging to be let out.

Daryl smirks like he does when he's not entirely sure how to respond to something she has said and she smiles, playing him the opening notes of one of her new songs. She sits in the middle of their bed and he lays down, stretched out beside her, and she plays for him, singing softly as if the song is meant for him and his ears only.

Maybe it is.

…

Rick and Lori are going out to dinner and Carl is spending the night with a friend and they ask Beth if she would mind babysitting Judith for a few hours. It's no surprise to anyone when Beth eagerly accepts and they come to the apartment, dropping the baby and a bag of her things off, promising to return before nine.

Beth absolutely loves Judith. Loves sitting on the floor with her and playing with all of the toys she has brought, loves watching a Disney movie with her or just walking her around the apartment with her in her arms, singing her songs.

She has always wanted to be a mother; has always wanted a baby of her own and the longer she spends with Judith, the stronger that urge suddenly becomes. And she thinks of Daryl next naturally. She has never been in a relationship like this. It's good and relaxing and being with him just feels completely natural. She loves him. She's not entirely sure when it happened exactly but one morning, she woke up and looked at him as he still slept beside her and just like that, she knew she was completely in love with him. She loves him and is so happy with him and she can only hope that she makes him happy in the same way.

She imagines having a baby with him. Imagines him as a father and holding their baby in his arms, talking to them in that quiet, slightly rough and gruff voice of his and the baby tugging on his hair. He would make such a good father. She knows it and she knows that that is one of those things that he will never believe so she doesn't tell him her thoughts and daydreams on the matter.

She knows there is still so much she doesn't know about him. He lets bits and pieces of his past slip to her and she can makes guesses to fill in the blanks and each time something else is revealed, she tries her hardest not to cry even if it's the only thing she wants to do. She wants to put her arms around him and let him know that he has her and she's not going anywhere.

But she doesn't because she doesn't know how he'll react. Talking about himself too much makes him so uncomfortable and she doesn't want to draw attention to it. It's not as if she feels pity towards him. She just wants to erase all of the pain he has ever felt and give him nothing but good things from now on.

She wants to tell him that she loves him.

But she doesn't because she sees the way he looks when he comes into the apartment and sees her holding Judith. He looks absolutely terrified.

…

Word of her baking skills spread around Evergreen and soon, she finds herself baking all sorts of things for people in town. She actually really loves being a waitress at T's diner but she loves baking, too, and it's helping bring in a bit more money since she has opened a bank account at the bank and has put away the rest of her inheritance, not wanting to touch any more of it.

"I'm guess I'm staying here a while," she smiles when she shows him her bank card and her library card and Daryl smirks a little, taking them from her to get a closer look at her signature at the bottom of each.

"Even I don't have these," he says and she giggles a little.

"Well, we live together. I suppose you can use my library card if you want," she tells him. "You do read, don't you?" She teases.

He just smirks. "Nope. Just some dirty, stupid redneck."

She smiles then and steps into him, sliding her arms around his waist. "I like you being dirty," she then tells him softly, her eyes staring into his.

Daryl stares down into hers, his hands slipping down her back and she shivers as his fingertips brush up beneath her shirt, touching the bare skin of her back. "I like you bein' clean," he says back in a soft voice and she nearly shivers again.

She pushes herself on her toes and kisses him then, his lips immediately pressing back against hers and before she realizes, he has lifted her up and sets her down on the counter next to her mixer and the bowl of chocolate cake she's making. His lips only leaves her to trail down her neck and she whimpers his name.

…

One thing she really loves about Daryl is how simple he is. Not simple-minded – she doesn't believe for a moment that he's as stupid as he sometimes likes to bring himself across as – but how simple he is in life.

He doesn't own a cellphone and he isn't entirely sure how to use a computer and she can imagine some hipsters living the same way, declaring that too many lives are ruled by technology and they don't need to live that way, but Daryl Dixon actually doesn't need to live that way. He has no use for any of it. Even grocery stores are just things of luxury to him because Rick and Lori have left him use their backyard as a place for a garden where he grows his own vegetables and he eats the meats he hunts and to him, there isn't too much of anything else he needs.

"What about milk?" Beth asks. "You'll get osteoporosis."

He shrugs. "What did people use to do 'fore they realized they could get somethin' like that from a cow?"

And that's another thing she loves. He really does act like it's the beginning of time.

"They considered thirty-year-olds to be their senior citizens."

His lips twitched at that. "I'm closer to forty. Guess that means I'm a walkin' miracle," he says and she laughs then. He looks at her after a moment. "Want me to start drinkin' milk?" He asks and she knows he's completely serious.

Her smile fades but her eyes are still sparkling. "And start eating some fruit, too?" She suggests.

"You're just pushin' it now," he grumbles and she laughs again.

…

It's not like she hates Shane. She doesn't hate anyone. But she really doesn't like when he comes into the diner and smiles at her. She does her best to smile in return because she smiles at everyone and she is polite to him because she's polite to everyone. And it isn't as if she's scared of Shane. There is just something about him, something in his eyes that makes her so nervous.

She doesn't tell Daryl about it. She doesn't _dare_ tell Daryl because she knows that all she has to do is mention it to him and he'll do something on a surge of anger and impulse and she'll probably have to bail her boyfriend out of jail. And she loves her boyfriend and of course she would bail him out of jail but that doesn't mean she necessarily wants to.

Shane and Rick come in for dinner and sit at the counter and Shane always smiles at her in a way that makes the hairs on her arms stand up on edge. Shane has recently shaved his head and she isn't quite sure how but it makes him more menacing and she always feels the need to ask Rick why Shane is one of his best friends.

"What would you guys like?" She asks, standing in front of them with her ordering pad and giving a small smile, looking at Rick rather than Shane.

"Bacon and eggs for me, Beth," Rick orders with a smile. "Lori tried to make me pancakes this morning and they were terrible. Been starving for breakfast all day."

Beth feels horrible that she laughs at that but she can't help it.

"Lori's always been a horrible cook," Shane says with his own smile, his eyes settling on Beth. "Bake anything today, Beth?" He asks.

"I have a couple of slices of cherry pie left," Beth says and tries so hard to not show him just how uncomfortable she is with the way he is smiling at her. She can only hope that Daryl doesn't walk in right now because he will take one look at her and see how uncomfortable she is and she _really_ doesn't want to bail her boyfriend out of jail tonight.

"Mmmmm. Sounds good. Love to try some of your _cherry_ pie," Shane smiles and Beth doesn't even try to mask her look of complete disgust.

Rick elbows Shane sharply in the side and Beth can't get away fast enough.

…

When Daryl comes in, he is just sitting down when she hurries over to him with his glass of Coke and plate with a slice of cherry pie on it. She gives him a quick kiss before he can even open his mouth.

"Just for you," she tells him and his brow furrows and he has no idea what she's talking about but she doesn't explain it to him before she hurries away again.

…

Sasha still doesn't like Daryl and as one of her closest friends in Evergreen, Beth is determined to fix this. She knows that Sasha doesn't know Daryl and is rather just listening to all of those stories about him that really aren't about him but really all about his brother. So she does what she does and suggest they all go out together.

Both Daryl and Sasha look less than thrilled with the idea when Beth tells them both about it but Sasha sighs and agrees and Daryl sighs and grunts and Sasha comes over to the apartment for dinner because having this get together at the diner would just be too weird.

"Need any help?" Sasha asks, coming into the kitchen.

"No, no," Beth smiles and pushes her gently back into the living room. Daryl is sitting on the couch, looking just as happy to be there as Sasha is. "You should sit and talk with Daryl. Tell him all about that customer that came into the diner yesterday," she says, her smile wide and constant.

She goes back into the kitchen and Sasha sits down in the armchair across from the couch. She and Daryl look at one another and for a few ticking minutes, neither of them say one another.

"A guy came into the diner yesterday," Sasha says. "It was Zach."

Daryl shakes his head slightly. "That kid's an idiot."

"He asked how to pronounce waffle. Thought T was putting foreign words on the menu," Sasha almost smiles at that.

Daryl lets out a smirk at that. "He tries to hit on Beth a lot. Every time, she has to remind him that she's seein' me and he always asks her since when."

Sasha smiles a little easier now. "He asked me once if I wanted some white milk mixed in my chocolate cow and I told him if he ever said to me again, I would pull my gun on him."

"What'd he say?"

"I don't know. I've never seen a grown man scurry away from me," she says, almost laughing, and Daryl almost laughs, too.

When Beth comes out of the kitchen to tell them that dinner is ready, she finds Daryl and Sasha smiling and talking guns and it's not really the conversation she would have normally imagined during dinner but they are actually talking to one another and asking questions so it's the best dinner conversation Beth has ever heard.

…

They go hunting for the weekend again and he gives her a small smile when she's walking quietly beside him and she gives him a small smile, too. They've been tracking a deer and she watches him as he studies the ground and the leaves and she wishes she sometimes could just throw crawl into his mind sometimes.

She has no idea what he's thinking most times. Almost all of the time. She can ask him but she knows he won't answer. She won't even ask him how he's tracking this deer. She just watches him and takes in everything he's doing and when he he holds his arm out across her chest to stop her walking, she immediately freezes and holds her breath as he holds his crossbow up, taking aim. She doesn't see anything though. How does he know that there is something coming? She doesn't even hear anything.

But then, as if he had planned this, the leaves rustled and a fawn stepped through the bushes, its ears flicking and its tail swishing. Beth almost gasps at how cute it is. It's like Bambi. All wobbly legs and white spots on its brown fur and she wishes she could just take it home with her. Instead, her boyfriend is about to shoot an arrow through its heart and Beth bites her down on her bottom lip so hard, she nearly draws blood but it stops her from whimpering Daryl's name in weak protest.

She squeezes her eyes shut and waits for Daryl to release the trigger but after nearly a minute passes and nothing happens, she opens her eyes to find Daryl looking at her. His face is blank but she swears she sees amusement in his eyes. She moves her eyes and sees that the fawn is gone, its body not lying on the forest floor dead. She looks back to Daryl and he swings the strap of the crossbow onto his shoulder.

"You bring stuff for S'mores?" He asks.

"I always have stuff for S'mores with me," she says, giving him a confused look.

"Les' go," he says but she stops him, putting a hand on his arm.

"What about the deer?" She asks.

"Not gonna make you cry on a huntin' trip," he says, smirking a little.

"I wasn't going to cry," she frowns at him but he just keeps smirking. "Shut up," she says and this time, he actually smiles and when he tosses his arm around her shoulders, she is so surprised and confused for a moment but then she beams and leans into him, slipping both of her arms around his waist.

…

The next night, when she comes home from her shift at the diner, Daryl is already asleep in bed which is a bit out of the ordinary but she knows he has been working on a plumbing problem at the high school all that day and he's exhausted.

She changes out of her uniform and slips on one of his flannel shirts and she crawls into bed with a yawn. But she feels something soft brushing against her leg and her brow furrows, wondering what that is. She glances to Daryl but he is deeply asleep and doesn't even flinch when she turns on the nightstand lamp. And when she does, she almost gasps.

There, just for her, is a small stuffed fawn.

She looks at Daryl and she feels tears brimming in her eyes and she leans over, hugging the deer to her chest and pressing her lips to Daryl's cheek in a soft kiss.

"I love you," she whispers.

…

Sasha has a family emergency come up and T-Dog asks if Beth can handle the morning shift. She does with no argument and she gives mental props to Sasha for being able to handle the breakfast rush on her own because it's so much more intense than the dinner rush. By eight o'clock, her feet hurt, her hair is falling out of her ponytail, and she has maple syrup sticky on her fingertips.

But it's finally starting to slow down and she feels like can breathe again. As she is getting Dale a refill of his coffee, the door of the diner opens, the bell tinkling overhead and she nearly gasps and drops the pot when she sees who enters.

Merle Dixon is out of jail. Merle Dixon is back.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	10. Part Ten

**I cannot believe the response this story has been getting. I never expected this when I started writing this one. I had originally planned on twelve chapters but I already began writing chapter eleven and I don't think I can wrap it all up in twelve chapters. **

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…

**Part Ten. **

Axel isn't necessarily wrong in his opinion. Merle Dixon isn't exactly the best news and when he is back in town, word spreads quickly and it isn't long at all until it reaches Daryl's ears. He leaves Dale's auto garage where he sometimes works and rushes over to the diner where he hears his brother is and where he knows Beth is working the morning shift that day.

His heart is thumping so hard and fast in his chest, he wonders what having a heart attack feels like as he practically rips open the door off its hinges and that annoying bell tinkles above his head as he enters the diner, his eyes immediately scanning for both Beth and Merle. He needs to get his brother away from her if he's anywhere near her. Beth knows some stories but she definitely doesn't know all of them and he doesn't want his brother anywhere near her. He doesn't even want Merle to know that Beth exists in his life because Merle has the worst talent for ruining everything and he knows this thing he has going with Beth will be no exception.

"Baby brother!" Merle Dixon grins, standing up from the stool at the counter he's sitting on, his grin wide and his arms open and Daryl's eyes are still looking for Beth but he doesn't see her anywhere as he steps into his brother's embrace.

"Hey, Merle," Daryl mumbles as Merle pounds him a few times on his back.

Where the hell is Beth?

"Man, what is up with that new hot lil' waitress? I've been locked up for almost a year and she is definitely a sight for sore eyes," Merle grins at him.

Daryl feels his body tense. "Which one?" He asks, pretending to play dumb.

"Didn't catch her name. Smilin' at me though like she's already beggin' for it," Merle laughs and pounds him on the back once more and doesn't catch the frown on Daryl's face. "Where you stayin'? At the motel?"

Daryl shakes his head. "Got out of there a while ago. We'll get you a room there though," he says, his eyes still scanning and his heart is still pounding. But the diner isn't that damn big and there's hardly anyone in there and it's not like he missed her. She's not in there and he doesn't know where she would be.

"Why can't I crash with you?" Merle's smile begins to slip as he looks at him closely.

"My place is too small," Daryl shakes his head. "You'll like the motel better."

Merle looks at him for another second and then is back to grinning. "Whatever you say, brother. As long as you're the one payin'."

"Yeah," Daryl nods and swallows. "My treat. I'll be right back," he then says and Merle goes back to drinking his coffee.

Daryl slips through the door that says 'Employees Only'. T-Dog is in the kitchen, whistling to himself and when he spots Daryl, he jerks his head towards the back door. Daryl gives him a nod of thanks and heads towards the back. Through the screen door, he sees Beth at the dumpsters, hefting a few bags up into it and Daryl breathes a sigh of relief.

When she hears the door open, she turns and when she sees him step out, she bursts into a smile. Daryl had never been happier to see her smile. "Hey, you," she says and practically skips up to him. Her hands press on his stomach and she raises herself up, pressing her lips to his in a kiss he barely registers. "Your brother's interesting."

"You didn't talk to him, did you?" Daryl asks; can't help but sound a little panicked.

"I asked him what he wanted to eat and he said me, which I admit, made me shudder," Beth admits and she is still smiling softly up at him. "It's okay, Daryl."

"No, it ain't," he frowns at her. "You didn't tell him 'bout…" he's not sure how to ask it and his throat is dry and he really needs a drink or a smoke or both. He really just wants to grab her hand and disappear into the woods with her for a few days; until Merle gets himself arrested again which will happen sooner rather than later.

"About us?" She smiles a little and shakes her head. "I knew you wouldn't want me to," she says and he exhales a breath of relief.

He lifts his hands to her cheeks and kisses her hard, wanting to thank her for that but not really knowing how to.

…

Oscar understands Axel's hate for Merle but he works the days while Axel works the nights and in Oscar's opinion, as long as Merle keeps up on paying each day, he can have one of the motel rooms. Daryl pays for a week and then hands Merle the key to room six – his old room.

"So what should we do tonight in celebration of me returnin'?" Merle asks once they're in the room and he tosses his bag onto the bed. "Thinkin' 'bout goin' to see a few of the guys. They still hangin' out at Terminus?"

"Don't know," Daryl shrugs, his hands in his pockets and standing in the open doorway. "Haven't been there since you got locked up."

"Too busy hanging out with your buddy, Sherriff Rick?" Merle grins but it's not a friendly grin at all and Daryl can see the growing agitation in Merle's eyes.

He suppresses a sigh. "Those people at the bar are your friends. Not mine. I've been busy workin'," he says.

"Well, I'm home now and I want you comin' with me for a drink tonight," Merle says – rather tells him and Daryl knows that tone. He can't exactly argue with Merle when he uses it. He's never been able to argue with him.

"Sure," Daryl nods as if he's had any choice and Merle's back to grinning and he claps a hand on his shoulder. "You good here? I gotta get back to work."

"Yeah, yeah," Merle waves him off. "See 'ya 'round nine."

Daryl nods again and leaves without another word. He already has plans with Beth for the night but he will just have to cancel them. Beth'll understand.

…

Beth looks disappointed but she understands just like he knew she would and he is quick to promise her that they'll go to the drive-in movie theater another night. She smiles and kisses him and tells him to have fun. It's Saturday night and Daryl almost invites her to come with him but there's no way he wants Beth anywhere near some dingy biker bar.

Merle walks into Terminus like he's some rockstar and his friends greet him like he is. Merle is immediatley handed shots and drinks and Daryl slips to the bar, getting a beer to himself. He doesn't understand why so many people seem to love his brother. Merle Dixon is an asshole and even Merle seems to know that.

But Merle is his brother. The only family he has and Daryl's never been able to stay away from him even when he knows he should.

…

He feels like he hasn't seen Beth in days and maybe that's the truth. It seems like whenever he's at the apartment, she's off somewhere and when she would be home, he's off with Merle. He's not even coming into the diner for dinner anymore because he's somewhere with Merle, trying to keep him out of trouble as best as he can. He feels guilty about it but keeping Merle away from Beth is the best thing he can do. Merle knows absolutely nothing about her and Daryl wants to keep it that way.

But one night, Merle is off with some woman and Daryl has the night free and he immediately goes to the diner. When he enters, Beth looks so surprised to see him and she instantly looks behind him, excepting to see his brother with him, and Daryl feels like shit because he looks at her and realizes how neglectful to her he's been.

He goes to sit in his usual booth but decides against it at the last moment and goes to sit at the counter instead. Beth appears in front of him and she gives him a small smile but he notes it's the same smile she gives to every customer. Not _his _smile. And she doesn't lean over to kiss him like she usually does either.

"What can I get you?" She asks.

Daryl just keeps staring at her. "How are you?" He asks and he sounds like a guy talking to a girl he doesn't already live with.

She nods and the same small smile is across her lips. "I'm good. And how are you?"

He nods his head once. "Good."

It's a complete lie, of course. But this is what Merle does. He comes and goes and every time he shows up in his life, he messes everything up in grand Merle Dixon fashion before disappearing or getting arrested again and Daryl has to clean everything up again until the next time.

"Do you want to go campin' this weekend?" He hears himself ask and the question seems to get something sparking in her eyes but then she shakes her head slightly.

"I can't… I told Maggie I would come home this weekend. She found some stuff of daddy's and there's something there he apparently wanted me to have," she says.

Daryl can't help but frown a little. "I didn' know you were leavin' for the weekend."

Of course, he hasn't exactly been around for her to tell him. And he tries not to let it bother him that she has called the farm home and not her apartment in Evergreen.

And Beth just shrugs her shoulders slightly in response. "Do you want anything to eat?" She asks.

Daryl stares at her for another moment and he wants to keep talking, to explain to her what's going on with Merle there, but he's never been the best at having conversations. "You bake anything tonight?" He asks.

She nods and leaves for a moment, returning with a plate with a slice of golden butter cake with buttercream frosting on it. Without a word, she gets him a glass of Coke and sets it down in front of him, too.

"Beth," he says her name just when he thinks she's going to walk away. But when she looks at him, he has no idea what to say to her and he just keeps looking at her.

She's waiting for him to say something and she is suddenly looking so hopeful but his tongue is too heavy and his throat is too dry and after a few minutes, she seems to realize he won't say anything else. The door opens and the bell rings and another customer enters and Beth goes to see to them and Daryl sits there, feeling like he's just lost her. Just like that.

…

He's working on fixing the tractor on one of the farms just outside of town when he hears a car approaching and then a few minutes later, he hears feet coming towards him. He lifts his head to see Rick coming towards him and he flicks his head slightly to get the annoying strands of hair from his eyes.

"Wha's goin' on?" Daryl asks, wondinerg if Merle has gotten himself arrested again. He actually finds himself hoping for it.

"Don't screw this up, Daryl," Rick says, giving him a stare. "Not over your brother."

"Don't know what yer talkin' 'bout," Daryl frowns even though he's not an idiot.

Rick sighs. "Beth. She's the best thing to happen to you and you're just tossing her aside for your worthless brother."

And even though he knows it's true, Daryl can't help but frown. "Merle's blood."

"And what has your blood ever done for you?" Rick retorts back.

Daryl doesn't give an answer because he can't. "He's my family," he says instead. "Only family I got left."

"And what the hell is Beth?" Rick asks.

Daryl shrugs. "Just somethin' to pass the time," he says and he immediately hates himself for it and he just hopes Rick never repeats those words to Beth.

Rick mutters something under his breath – sounds like _stupid son of a bitch_ – and then he turns and leaves without saying anything else. Once he hears the car backing away and driving off, Daryl clenches his eyes shut and exhales a deep breath.

This is his problem. Always has been. He has always given Merle his absolute loyalty and he knows he's not nearly as important in Merle's life but after their mom dying and everything with their dad… Merle was all he had for the longest time.

And then he met Beth and for some reason, she wanted to be with him and he had fooled himself into thinking that things in his life could be good like that forever.

But with Merle coming back into town, it just reminds him of his place in the world and it's not with Beth Greene.

…

She's just gone for the weekend but he still checks around the apartment, making sure that most of her clothes are still there and she hasn't moved out without him figuring it out. But her things are still there, the stuffed fawn still in the middle of their bed, her guitar still in the corner – and she would never go anywhere without that – and he sinks down on the couch, exhaling with relief.

He wouldn't blame her if she did leave but he would want to be around when she did it so he could say something or even try to stop her though he knows he wouldn't do either. If she wants to leave, he won't stop her.

Someone knocks on the door and Daryl gets up to go and answer it and when he opens the door to see Merle standing there with a grin, his stomach plummets.

"What the hell are you doin' here?" Daryl can't help but ask.

"Is that the way to greet your brother?" Merle asks, pushing past him and sauntering into the apartment as if he belongs there.

But he looks all wrong standing there. The floors are wood and the walls are white and Beth loves color and it's too nice and too clean for the likes of Merle Dixon. Maybe for the likes of him, too.

"How'd you find out where I live?" Daryl asks.

"Small town," Merle shrugs. He sees a framed picture on the table next to the couch and he goes to it, letting out a whistle when he picks it up and looks at it. "Small town told me 'bout this, too."

It's a picture of him and Beth taken at one of Lori and Rick's barbecues. Daryl is sitting in one of the lawnchairs and Beth is sitting on his lap, her head resting against his and she is smiling so brightly and happily and Daryl is smiling as much as he usually does. When Lori gave it to Beth, Beth immediately framed it and put it on display like she's proud of it or something.

"Can't believe my baby brother is shacked up with some hot lil' number like this," Merle smirks, looking at him.

"It ain't like that," Daryl says and he feels his hands curl into fists at his sides.

"What is it then?" Merle looks downright amused now and Daryl wants to punch him. He doesn't though. He never does. "You love her? Gonna marry her?"

Daryl doesn't say anything. He doesn't think there's too much to say to that.

…

* * *

**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	11. Part Eleven

**Some of you have guessed parts of this chapter already and I hope this doesn't disappoint. **

* * *

…

**Part Eleven.**

There's a part of her that isn't entirely surprised when it's happening. Merle comes back and Daryl begins pulling further and further away and it's almost as if a part of her has been expecting this to happen. He's hardly home anymore and when he is, she's asleep and wakes up the next morning to him already gone and she's convinced that she just dreamt him beside her with his arm across her hip.

But the less she sees him, her heart grows heavier until it's all the way to her feet and she knows it's over. They don't have some big conversation about it. That would mean they would have to be in the same room to actually talk to one another. She just knows because he's always with his brother and doesn't seem to want to be around her – or have her around – anymore and she tells herself that it's just been a few months. She can't be heartbroken over a few months.

But she is completely broken because she loves him and she just imagined being with him for a little while longer but it's not going to happen because Daryl is the sort who will always choose his family over anyone else and his loyalty is one of the things she loves about him. Except now. Because now, she's driving back to the farm with tears streaming down her cheeks and trying to curse Daryl Dixon in her head.

She pulls up the drive of the farm and as she nears the house, she looks at it through the windshield and wonders if she should just move back here. She had had no plans of leaving Evergreen and she doesn't want to be the sort who lets some guy chase her out of town but the thought of Daryl coming into the diner and having to bring him his dinner and not be able to kiss him or smile at him anymore just makes her cry a little bit harder and running away doesn't seem so bad.

…

She doesn't tell Maggie but Maggie hugs her tight anyway as if she knows already.

"It'll be okay," Maggie tells her softly.

Beth shakes her head though because she loves him and he doesn't want to be with her and in what world is that okay?

…

Glenn has practically moved into the farmhouse with Maggie and when Beth wakes up on Saturday morning and comes downstairs, Glenn is in the kitchen, standing at the stove, making pancakes.

"Hey," he grins at her. "Morning. Making pancakes. You want some?"

Beth nods and even though her eyes hurt from crying, she is able to smile. "That sounds really good. Smells good, too."

"And I have coffee, too," he says.

Beth gives him another smile before moving to the cabinet, taking a mug down from the shelf and then moving to the coffee machine on the counter. She sips and goes to look out the window over the sink that overlooks the endless fields and endless sky.

And this has always been her home and she has always loved being here but now, she feels just like a vistor. This will always be her home and yet, she feels like maybe she doesn't belong here as much as she had once thought. It's like when she was a kid and she would go away to camp for a few weeks in the summer and then come home again. It still smelt like home and felt like home and the one to be different was her. And she was different now, too.

"Here, Bethy," Maggie comes into the kitchen with an envelope in her hand. "I was going through some of daddy's things to give to the church and I found this."

Beth puts the coffee mug down and takes the envelope, her name written on the front in Herschel's handwriting. She can't help but frown a little, confused, but when she looks to Maggie, her older sister just shrugs.

"I have no idea," Maggie says. "My name isn't the one on it."

…

After eating pancakes and taking a shower, Beth gets dressed and then goes outside. There is only one place where she can read this letter in the needed solitutude it requires. She climbs the ladder to the hayloft in the barn and sits down in the large open door so she can read by sunlight. Her fingers are nearly shaking as she opens the envelope as carefully as she can.

Her eyes are already flooding with tears before she even reads a word because just seeing her daddy's handwriting again is completely overwhelming.

…

_Dear Bethy,_

_I came back from the lawyer's office and I made a decision while there that you will know of when I pass on from this earth. I have left the farm to Maggie and not to you. You, who have been with me, working this farm for the past few years, deserves your rightful piece of it but there is a reason I am keeping it from you and it is a simple one._

_You do not belong here. I have watched you work by my side every day and every day, I wait for you to realize it. I cannot imagine what it would have been like for me if you were not here to help me. With your mother and brother having passed on and your sister living hours away, you are all that I have and you are the reason I rise from bed each morning. You and this farm. You have helped me keep this farm – and myself – going and there are not enough words to express how thankful I am to you and how much I love you._

_But your love and loyalty to me, and my own selfishness, have kept you here and you are living a life you are not supposed to live. You are not supposed to spend your life on a farm. You are meant to be out there, singing your songs and falling in love and making others as happy as you have made me. I have left the farm to Maggie in hopes that once you find out, you will leave and find yourself finally living your life. _

_That is my hope. Please do not be hurt or angry with me or with Maggie. She had no knowledge of me doing this. This is the only way I can think of to finally help you. I hope you have the fullest, best life, my Bethy. _

_Love daddy_

…

Beth isn't sure how long she stays up in the hayloft, crying and hugging the letter to her chest.

…

When she returns to Evergreen on Sunday afternoon, she drives to the Grimes house first before going back to her apartment. She has had an idea over the weekend and she wants to talk it over with Lori to see if it is even possible.

Lori is happy to see her as always and Judith is immediately stretching her arms up for her. Beth smiles and picks her up and follows Lori into the living room.

"How was the visit with you sister?" Lori asks.

"Wonderful," Beth smiles and she means it, her daddy's letter tucked into her bag.

She almost asks about Daryl but she stops herself before she can. She has other things more important on her mind right now than Daryl Dixon. He's done with her so she'll be done with him, too.

"I actually wanted to talk with you about something. I know how good you are with numbers and math has never been my strong suit," Beth says. "You know that little vacant store on Court Street?" She asks. "Would you like to come see it with me?"

Lori is already smiling though. "You want to open a bakery."

Beth looks at her for a moment, shocked, and then lets out a little laugh. "I want to open a bakery," she confirms. "Can you read minds?"

"No," Lori's smile somehow seems to grow even more. "It just is so perfect for you. Everyone in this town is crazy about anything you bake."

"I still have plenty of money left over from the inheritance my father left me but I don't want to blow it on something you don't think has a chance," Beth says.

"We'll go first thing tomorrow morning and look at it," Lori says and Beth beams.

…

She gets home and he's not there. She's not surprised in the least but she is surprised when she goes into the bedroom to unpack and sees his things still there – clothes in the dresser, his extra pair of boots in the closet. She thought for sure he would have moved out over the weekend – not even talking to her, just leaving.

She goes into the bedroom to unpack and she tucks her letter safely into the top drawer of her nightstand. She has already read through it four times and she sees herself reading it every night before she goes to bed. Her daddy wanted her to have a full, happy life for herself. He wanted her to sing and play her guitar and fall in love and be happy. And she met Daryl and fell in love with him and she was so happy for a little bit in time and she could just imagine Daryl and her daddy meeting. Hershel Greene would have loved him because Daryl is so much more than his last name whether or not he believes it. She sees past it and her daddy would have, too.

She goes into the bathroom to take a shower and when she comes out, she can't resist slipping on one of Daryl's flannel shirts hanging in the closet. She knows she won't have much longer to wear them and she loves how soft they are against her skin. She knows that even if she goes to the store and buys a men's flannel shirt, it won't be the same.

Maybe she can hide one so she can keep it for herself even after he's gone.

…

"Why won't you go out with me, Beth?" Shane asks, leaning into the counter and smiling at her in a way that makes every muscle in her body knot tightly.

"I can't," she does her best to keep smiling and be polite. "I have a boyfriend." Even as she says it though, she doesn't know if that's actually still true or not.

Shane smiles even wider then. "You sure 'bout that?" He asks. "Heard he's been in Atlanta with his brother for a few days now. Daryl'll run anywhere his big brother tells him to. Prob'ly up to no good either."

Beth feels her throat grow dry and she tries her hardest to swallow past it. She wants to argue with him and tell him that Daryl is a good man and is his _own_ man but ever since the return of Merle Dixon, she knows that's not necessarily true. He's a good man but when it comes to his brother, Daryl is very much under his control. It makes Beth's stomach twist at the possibilities of what Daryl is getting into.

"Come on, Beth. You went slummin' for a while and I'm sure it was real nice. But I can be nice, too," he says and his hand reaches out to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "I'll treat you like a girl like you deserves to be treated." His fingers drop down and brush along her arm.

Her entire body stiffens and goes cold and she tries to get as far away from him as she can but behind the counter, there's only so much space she can put between them. She wants to call out for Martinez but he went out into the back to call his wife and she's completely alone with him. And Shane be may an officer of the law but he scares her because he's one of the figures who thinks he's _above_ the law and is there anything that can actually stop him from doing something?

When the door opens and the bell rings, she lets out a breath of relief. And even more so when she sees who it is.

"Daryl," she breathes his name and she can't help it. She races around the counter and hurries up to him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

She feels Daryl's arms around her then and she's so angry and so hurt by this man and yet, with him there now, she's not afraid. And she's so grateful that he's actually holding her, she feels like she could cry.

…

Daryl stays in the diner for the rest of the night and waits as she cleans up, wiping the counters and sweeping and mopping the floors and he takes the trash out for her. They step outside together and she locks up and when she looks at him, she has no idea what to say to him and she hates that because she always knows what to say to Daryl. He stares at her, too, his hands in his pockets and she's surprised when he opens his mouth and words are actually to leave his.

"Can I walk you home?" He asks and she smiles a little, nodding her head.

She walks on one side of the sidewalk and he walks on the other. He seems sure not to put himself too close to her and she wishes he would hold her hand though she knows he won't. Even when his brother isn't around, he still very much is.

"Thank you for tonight," she says as they stop outside the dentist's office and the door that leads upstairs to the apartment.

He nods once. "You'll let me know if he bothers you again?"

"I will," she nods as well, never taking her eyes from him.

She feels like they had just returned from their first hunting trip together and he has walked her to her motel door, both of them lingering, neither quite sure what to do.

She wants to ask him if he still lives here with her but she can't form the words.

"I'm stayin' at the motel with Merle for a while," he says as if reading her mind.

She does her best to nod.

"You can find me there if you need me."

She has to get away from him before she starts crying again. She still has no idea what happened between them. All she knows is his brother came back and he began to immediately start pulling away from her with no warning or explanation. And now, it's like it is like when they first met. She feels this need and this want to be close to him but she doesn't even know him.

"Good night, Daryl," she says quietly as she feels the first tears start to prick her eyes and she quickly turns towards the door, heading inside.

She really needs to stop crying over him. It's done. He's gone. He'll come get his stuff eventually and that will be that. It's not like he's crying over her and she is planning on having more important things in her life than Daryl Dixon.

…

The phone call comes in the middle of the night, ripping her out of a deep sleep. She is disoriented for a moment until her tired brain realizes what it is. She reaches for her cell blindly on her night stand and answers it without looking at the number, her head back on the pillow and her eyes closed as if ready to go back to sleep.

"Hello?" She croaks out an answer.

"Beth? It's Sherriff Grimes. I'm sorry to wake you but I'm down at the station and I need you to get over here. It's Daryl. He's been arrested."

…

* * *

** Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	12. Part Twelve

…

**Part Twelve.**

"I wanna press charges!" Shane is shouting as Beth steps into the police station, his voice muffled and yet, filled with anger as he is holding an ice pack to his nose, blood dripping down onto his shirt, and Rick is trying to push him back.

She sees Daryl sitting on a bench against the wall, his hands behind his back, handcuffed, and somehow, he seems to know the instant she's there because he lifts his head and looks right at her. He looks calm. She only hesitates for a moment before she realizes what he did and she hurries to him, sitting down beside him on the bench.

"Are you crazy?" She asks him softly.

Daryl shrugs his shoulders. "Prob'ly."

Beth looks at him and she's not entirely too sure what to say because even though she knows he punched Shane for her, what he did isn't necessarily right and she shouldn't encourage him by thanking him. He's looking at her, too, and she gently brushes some hair back that's hanging in his eyes.

"I'm sure that's annoying," she says in the same soft voice.

Daryl nods but doesn't say anything and he's still looking at her, his eyes dark and penetrating and she feels herself scoot a little closer to him.

"Are you okay?" She asks him.

He shrugs again. "Knuckles are a bit tender right now."

And she purses her lips together so she doesn't smile.

"Beth," Rick notices that she's arrived and he comes over to the bench. "I need to speak with you. Both of you."

He looks to Daryl then, too, and then grabs his arm, tugging him to his feet but not roughly. He takes them into an interrogation room and once the door is closed, Rick takes out the key and moves behind Daryl to unlock the handcuffs. When his wrists are free, Daryl crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the wall and Beth isn't too entirely sure what to do so she stands, awkward and her fingers grasped around the strap of her bag slung across her chest.

"This is serious, Daryl," Rick begins. "I shouldn't have to tell you how serious."

Daryl doesn't say anything.

"If Shane is going to press charges against Daryl, can I get a restraining order against Shane?" Beth hears herself blurt out.

Both Daryl and Rick look at her but while Rick's surprise is evident, Daryl's face is blank. She's not sure where the words come from but after hearing herself say them, she agrees whole-heartedly with what she has said.

"A restraining order?" Rick echoes the words as if he's never heard them before.

Beth nods quickly, feeling more confident now. "Earlier tonight, he came into the diner and he…" she swallows and Rick is watching her, the man practically holding his breath, his mind racing with everything she can possibly say. "He was touching my face and my arm and Daryl came in just in time. I honestly don't know what Shane would do if Daryl hadn't showed up. He scares me."

Rick is quiet for a moment and then exhales a heavy stream of air, muttering some swift curse words directed towards Shane.

"Daryl was just acting like my boyfriend towards another man," Beth adds though she isn't sure how true that is. The boyfriend part. Not the Daryl being protective of her part. That part is not surprising at all.

Daryl is a good man. No matter what he, or his brother, try to say about it otherwise.

Rick looks at her and then at Daryl for a moment before back to her. "I'm going to have a talk with Shane. You both can head home."

Daryl finally has a reaction. "Jus' like that?" There is surprise – and a mixture of doubt – in his tone.

"Go on," Rick says, going to the door of the room and opening it.

Beth glances towards Daryl before giving a small smile to Rick of thanks and leaving the room, not looking over her should to know that Daryl is behind her.

…

She's surprised when she asks him if he needs a ride back to the motel and shakes his head, grunting they go back to the apartment together instead.

He sits on the couch and she sits facing him, cleaning his knuckles as gently as she can, and they are both silent because neither have any idea what to say to the other.

She gives a soft sigh. "I shouldn't thank you for what you did but… thank you," she says, glancing at him for only a moment.

She keeps her eyes focused on his knuckles and she feels him staring at her.

"Thanks for comin' to the station," Daryl then says. "Didn' think you would."

She lifts her eyes again to him. "I almost didn't," she admitted. "But I thought of you there, needing me and I…" she trails off because words, once again, have failed her. She wants to tell him that she'll always be there for him but she doesn't because she doesn't know if that's something he'll actually want to hear. "I'm staying in Evergreen," she decides to switch topics completely.

"Didn' think you were thinkin' of leavin'," he says, his brow furrowed slightly and a frown weighing down his lips.

"I thought about it." _Because of you_ goes unsaid. "But… there's a vacant store on Court Street… I think I'm going to try and open a bakery."

If he's surprised by that, he doesn't show it. Maybe he's like Lori and can't read minds but just already knows that that's what she's supposed to be doing.

He gives his head a slight nod after a moment. "You'll let me know if you need help?" He asks and he suddenly looks so unsure and shy – just like he used to.

She feels herself smiling faintly at that. "I will."

…

It's a small store but she doesn't need something huge. It's just her baking and she doesn't want to bite off more than she can chew. It takes no convincing at all to get Lori to be her partner. Beth will handle the baking and running the store and Lori will be in charge of the numbers and everything else.

She tells T-Dog what she is doing and she expects him to be miffed about losing a waitress in a few months but he grins and hugs her and tells her he expects to still be selling her cakes and pies in his diner. She laughs a little and tells him that she couldn't ask for better advertising than that.

The Grimes help her clean and mop and wipe and then she and Sasha paint the walls a pale butter yellow. Maggie and Glenn come to Evergreen for their first visit and Maggie's eyes well with tears as Beth shows them the clean empty storefront. She smiles and laughs and keeps an arm around Beth's shoulders nearly the whole time.

"Daddy would be so proud of you," Maggie tells her.

It's Beth's turn for her eyes to well with tears.

…

She takes a deep breath before knocking on the door to the motel's sixth room and she almost takes a step back when Merle answers. He lets out a whistle when he sees her and his eyes rove up and down her body. This time, she takes a small step back.

"Is Daryl here?" She asks.

"You're askin' for the wrong brother, sweetheart," Merle's smile somehow turns even more slimy and everything about him makes her stomach roll. "If you wan' a real Dixon, I'll give it to you real good, girl."

She opens her mouth to respond – with what, she has no idea – but thankfully, Daryl appears in the doorway and pushes Merle roughly in the shoulder.

"Shu' up, Merle," Daryl all but growls at him and Merle just laughs.

Daryl takes Beth's arm and she notes immediately how gentle his fingers are on her. He leads her further away from the door into the parking lot and he faces her.

"Everythin' a'right?" He asks, looking down into her eyes.

"You said if I needed help… with the bakery," she quickly adds in case he misunderstands and thinks she's asking for help from him with something for _her_ personally and she doesn't want to know if he would refuse that or not.

"Yeah," he nods and his answer is immediate and she feels herself breathing easier.

…

She takes him back to the bakery and explains to him what she is thinking for the display cases. She has drawn some pictures but she knows they aren't that good. They aren't truly showing what she has envisioned but Daryl takes them and studies them and seems to understand what she has in mind.

He has already brought his toolbox with him and he pulls out a measuring tape and Beth watches as he takes measurements and writes them down with a pencil on a slip of paper he pulls from his back pocket. He works quietly and quickly and she had been wanting to talk to him but she doesn't want to break his concentration.

When he looks to her again, she gives him a small smile.

"Is it possible?" She asks.

"Anythin' is possible," he nods. "If you want this, I'll build this for you."

And she tries to get herself to stop but she can't and as soon as he says those words to her, she feels her heart skipping beats like this always used to do when around him. And she tells her heart to stop it because it is only heading down a path that she has already gone down and it was a path that proved to do nothing except break said heart. Does her heart not remember that? Does her heart not remember the way it cracked and crumbled as he broke it and only now, it is beginning to repair itself? Is her heart really willing to go through all of that again?

She knows Daryl didn't love her but did his own heart ever crack for her?

She nods her head and quickly looks away because suddenly, looking at him is too hard and the air inside the small store is hot and heavy and she feels it pressing down against her skin. And she feels herself trying to hate him because he acts as if she never had any effect on him. It's almost like she was nothing more than a distraction to him until his brother got back.

"Beth-" Daryl suddenly says, shuffling a step closer to her.

"Don't," she shakes her head and counters it with one of her own step back.

She has no idea what he is going to say but she knows she doesn't want to hear it.

But Daryl doesn't stop and he's in front of her and there's nowhere for her to escape to. His fingers are lightly cupping her elbow and she refuses to look at him even as she feels his own eyes burning into her.

"Beth," he tries again. And then silence.

Minutes tick by and he says nothing and Beth swears her heart sinks further with each tick of the invisible clock.

She finally looks at him and she knows tears are welling in her eyes and she hates that there are because she has been crying way too much over Daryl Dixon and she wishes she could just stop. She's moved on. She's _trying _to move on and yet, just being around him, she's thrust back right to where she was when she first lost him. And she hates showing this much emotion in front of him because why does it matter? The S'mores and stars and the stuffed fawn and getting him to drink milk and kissing his scars, none of it matters. All Daryl wants in this world is Merle.

"Beth," he says her name one more time. "'m sorry," he then says so softly, it's practically mumbled and Beth just stares at him because she doesn't want to get her hopes up as to what she thinks he just said. But he's still staring at her. "'m sorry," he says again and he sounds a little more confident now.

Beth shrugs her shoulders. "For what?" She asks and is trying so hard to be casual. "None of it matters. Nothing we went through together matters."

Daryl looks at her and she sees his jaw clench slightly, his fingers twitching still on her elbow. "That what you think?"

She juts her chin out slightly as she locks her eyes with his. "That's what I know." More tears flood her eyes even as she screams at herself to stop.

She feels Daryl's fingers twitch again and she only has room to take a quick gasp of air before he slams his lips against hers. She almost yanks herself back but feeling Daryl kiss her, his lips against hers, his facial hair scratching at her face gently, she can't help herself. She practically sinks against him and Daryl's arms are around her, holding her close to him and her own arms wind around his waist, holding him close in return. She doesn't know why he's kissing her or what this means for them but she doesn't want him to stop. Her stomach lurches and her heart flips and she moans softly again as he deepens the kiss.

She knows this will just make everything even worse when he walks away again. When he's done with her – again – and walks back to his brother, it will break her all over again and worse than before but she can't get herself to stop. She loves this man and having him kiss her, the cracks in her heart are all filling in and disappearing – for the time being.

"Daryl," she whimpers his name as his hands slip down the sides of her body.

And when she hears him whisper her own name, "Beth" leaving his lips, she thinks like maybe things could be like they were – at least for a little while.

…

"Always hated these white sheets," he grumbles.

"Why?" She feels laughter bubbling in her throat.

"Too dirty for white," he says, laying on his back and freeing his legs from where they are tangled. Beth keeps smiling as she rolls towards him and she rests her chin and hand on his chest, looking up at him, feeling his arm slide around her lower back, holding her to him. Daryl looks at her for a few moments. "'m sorry," he then says again.

"For what?" She asks and she wants to hear him say something.

He exhales a deep breath and she thinks he won't say anything else. "Things have always been complicated 'tween me and my brother," he says, his eyes directing back up towards the ceiling and she thinks maybe he'll say more but he doesn't.

"So, this was it?" She says and she says it so softly because thinking it and actually giving voice to it makes her throat scratchy and nausea bubble in her stomach.

She knew that this would be it. Knew it the second he kissed her. She will never win against Merle Dixon and if it comes down to the choice – and it has – she will lose. But the idea of laying with Daryl again was too tempting and she had been too weak.

But now, in the afterwards, cold realization is settling in over her again and the cracks in her heart are starting to form again.

She sighs and sits up, running her fingers through her tangled hair. She pulls the sheet with her as she rises from the bed and wraps it around her nude body as if she is shielding him from seeing any more of her; as if he hasn't already memorized it.

"You should go," she says and she's not able to look at him anymore and she fights to keep the tremble from her voice. She hates that she's so weak. Hates that _he_ makes her so weak.

Daryl gets out of bed, too, and he's standing there naked and though she has memorized him, too, and has had him inside of her too many times to count, she almost feels embarrassed now for some reason and avoids looking at him.

He shakes his head. "I ain't goin' anywhere," he says and Beth finally looks at him.

…

* * *

**The next chapter will be Daryl's POV and Daryl and Beth, both, are going to talk. And yell. They need to finally do both. **

**Thank you very much for reading and please review!**


	13. Part Thirteen

**So many of Daryl's rambling thoughts in this chapter. He's kind of all over the place but I think Daryl is no longer the sort of man who acts brashly like he was on the first couple of seasons on the show. Now, he thinks before he acts and in this chapter, he is thinking - a lot. I was thinking the next chapter would be the last - an epilogue of sorts - but I'm not sure. **

* * *

…

**Part Thirteen. **

Beth stares at him and doesn't say anything but Daryl isn't expecting her to. She just stands there with the bed sheet clutched around her body as if she's trying to protect herself from him or something and Daryl gets why she's doing it but at the same time, the sight of it gets his anger growing.

He realizes his own nakedness and he grabs his boxers from the floor, tugging them on. "I ain't leavin'," he tells her and she just stares at him, still not saying a word.

He exhales a deep breath. He's never been good with words and Beth knows that but he knows he's the one who is going to have to talk. He owes her that much because when it comes to his brother, he's a dick and a coward and Beth got the brunt of that and she never deserves that from him. She deserves so much more than him and all of his shit baggage and he knows that he should just leave – especially with her telling him to – but lying in bed again with her, feeling her impossibly soft skin and smelling her scent of chocolate and frosting, feeling her fingers running over his own skin and whimpering his name as he moved above her… he's missed her. He's missed her this whole damn time and now faced with having to walk away again, he finds himself unable to. How the hell did he inch away from her the first time?

And he knows the answer. There are actually a few answers and he knows them all. He's not as stupid as a lot of people think he is. But Beth never thought he was stupid. Beth, with her smiles and soft laugh and bright eyes, she always believed in him and he looks at her and he wonders if she still does because how much shit can he put one person through before they give up entirely?

He hears a rumble of thunder and Beth hears it, too. She moves from the bedroom and goes into the living room where she has two of the windows open. The wind has picked up and is blowing into the room. She moves to close one window and he closes the other and another rumble of thunder shakes the earth.

He looks at her and she's looking at anything but him and he yells at himself to say something. He can't just be quiet like he always is and give her his usual grunts. This is too important right now. _Beth_ is too damn important and just thinking that to himself, he exhales a deep breath.

"Merle used to be the only thing I had in this world," he begins. Beth stands on one side of the living room, hugging the sheet around her body and he stands on the other side of the living room, just staring at her. "Our mom died and our ol' man…" he doesn't say anything more about that because she knows enough and that's not what he wants to talk about right now.

The rain starts to fall now, the clouds bursting open and the rain falls all at once, a downpour that pounds the roof and the window panes. Outside, it's dark even though it's not even three in the afternoon yet.

"I spent a lot of my life just followin' Merle around, doin' what he told me to do 'cause I thought that that's all I really was good at." Daryl can no longer look at her.

Beth doesn't say anything but he hears her move and he looks to see her moving to sit down on the edge of the coffee table. She doesn't lift her head to him and her hands are clasped in her lap. She won't look at him but he knows she's listening. He inches a step closer to her. There is a crash of lightning and she flinches slightly.

"I know he's not good for me but he's my brother and he's the only family I got," he says and he exhales a deep breath. He stares at her. "And then I met you," he gets out in a breath and watches as Beth's entire body goes still. She still won't look at him and he inches another step closer.

He really doesn't know what to say and he focuses on his breathing for a moment. He knows what he _wants _to say but he can't actually get those words out of his mouth. He knows Beth can't read his mind and he knows that he'll actually have to say all of this so she knows. She deserves to know.

She stands up then suddenly and she finally turns her head to look at him. "I'm hungry," she says softly and he looks at her without responding and she turns to go into the kitchen.

Daryl follows but unlike those times with Merle, this is one person - and one time - he actually wants to follow.

…

He leans against the counter and watches as she mixes the batter together and adds the container of blueberries she has bought from the store earlier that week. She fills the muffin cups and he holds the oven door open for her just as he had that afternoon in the Grimes' kitchen when he finally asked her out.

She is still wearing a bed sheet and he's wearing nothing but his boxers but it doesn't feel weird. Not at all. They've done this before. He likes to watch her bake. There's something about it that relaxes him. The quiet whirring of the mixer. The soft song she hums as she stirs. The kitchen is small and there doesn't seem to be that much room but he likes the small dusting of flour on the counter, the way the room steadily grows warmer, the smell of the goodness and it smells like home and everything he's ever wanted and _Beth_.

He watches and he feels his fingers itching. He has just been inside of her not even an hour ago and he wants her again. He always wants her. These past couple of months, being with Merle and not being with her, he's felt a knot in his stomach that he's never felt before. He's never missed anyone. Not all of the times Merle would disappear or even when his mom died. He just moved on and kept on living his life. He has been taking care of himself and have been on his own for so long, he never saw a reason to be sad with people coming or going.

But when he inched himself away from Beth and no longer saw her every day, he felt himself aching. Actually aching and hurting and he would sometimes walk past the diner at night – never going in – and seeing her smiling at other people as she worked. He has told himself that it didn't matter. They had only been together for a couple of months. It shouldn't have gotten that intense in just a couple of months.

But as she stands at the counter now, wiping it down, cleaning everything up again, a strand of her hair has fallen from where she has the others tucked behind her ears and he doesn't stop himself from reaching over and tucking it back behind her ear.

She looks at him and he looks at her and he waits for her to say something but she's still quiet and he knows he needs to say something else.

…

The blueberry muffins are warm and practically melt on his tongue and he feels Beth watching him as he eats. He lifts his eyes to meet hers and he tries to chew a little more quickly so he can say something but she beats him to it.

"You broke my heart, Daryl," she says suddenly and even though her voice is soft, it pounds in his ears louder than the storm still raging outside.

He stares at her and the bit of muffin still on his tongue is now like sawdust.

"I fell in love with you," she continues. "And I knew it had only been a few months but I was just so convinced that you were the one."

She laughs then but it's not Beth's laugh – soft and light and washing over him. This sounds hollow and empty and it makes his chest twist and he can hardly look at her.

"That's how unbelievably stupid I am," she laughs again but her eyes are welling with tears.

Daryl is finally able to swallow the bit of muffin and he shakes his head. "You ain't stupid, Beth. And you weren't imaginin' anythin'," he says and he's amazed he can actually say that at all.

Beth stares at him, tears still welled in her eyes but none have fallen down her cheeks. He can see the battle waging on her face. She wants to move towards him. He can see it in the way she starts to lean forward but then she stops herself before she can take that first step.

"What are you going to do, Daryl?" She asks and her voice sounds stronger now.

Daryl just looks at her and doesn't say anything because he knows that she has more she wants to say and Daryl is relieved that she's finally speaking though he knows he isn't going to really like anything she has to say.

"When you finally leave here, are you just going to go back to Merle? Just keep following him around and doing nothing for yourself? What about you, Daryl?"

He looks at her and he tries to remember the last time someone had asked him that. What about him? What does he want? He doesn't need Rick or anyone to tell him that Beth is the best thing to ever happen to him. He may act like it sometimes but he's not stupid. His mind just gets clouded sometimes. Merle clouds him all up. He always has and Daryl wishes he could be as strong as Beth needs him to be.

"What do you want?" She asks, still staring at him with her glassy eyes.

What does he want? Again, has anyone asked him that? Even if no one has asked him that, he knows the answer already. Maybe he's always known. Maybe he's known since the first time he came into the diner and saw her. He's always wanted her. It was never a secret to anyone – except Beth and himself at first. But Lori and Rick saw something and got it into their heads that they needed to play matchmaker and when he finally had the balls to ask her out, he remembers sitting across from her in that burger restaurant, seeing her drink her chocolate milk shake, and thinking that maybe asking her out and being there with him was the best thing he's ever done.

He grunts something then because again, he knows what he wants to say but he really doesn't think any of those words are in his vocabulary. He doubts there has been a Dixon in the history of their family that has ever had this kind of conversation with another person.

"No, Daryl," Beth shakes her head. "Don't do that." She is frowning now, the tears in her eyes all but forgotten. "You don't get to just grunt and have that be that."

Daryl stares at her and he just keeps staring at her and he's yelling at himself to say something because this is it. This is his one chance. His only chance. And he's not going back to the motel to stay with Merle and he's not going to spend the rest of his life being his brother's shadow. When Merle's in jail, those are the best times in his life because he's free and he can do anything he wants. He can be friends with who he wants and work at a job he wants and spend his time how he wants. His life is his.

And it shouldn't have to be that way. He's a man and he should be able to live his life however he wants. And for a while there, he wanted to spend it with Beth because she made him happy. There's no denying that to himself. He was the happiest he had ever been in his dark, miserable life. He woke up every morning to that pretty face and she smiled at him like he was the only man in the world to her and for her and he believed that he made her happy, too.

And that's all he wanted to do because he had never made anyone happy before in his life. He has spent his entire life being looked down at or being avoided altogether. In Evergreen, just a stop along the way on Merle's drug dealing trail, he found a job and friends and a girl he looked at and saw the world being a little bit brighter with her around.

"Daryl," she says his name again – soft and sounding so damn scared all of a sudden as if she already knows his answer but still needs to hear it all the same even though she knows it will break her heart all over again. "Talk!" She suddenly shouts. "Can you talk at all?" Her voice echoes and bounces off the walls, as loud as the rain and the thunder and Daryl has never heard her yell before.

The sheet is starting to slip from her body and she grabs it before it can, tightening it even more around her body, her eyes flashing and never leaving his. She's scared and nervous and yet, there's still the slight hopefulness that he recognizes and knows wells because Beth always seems so damn hopeful over one thing or another in the world. No matter how shitty things are, she always seems to smile and shrug her shoulders and remind him that things can only go up from here.

What does he want? That's the easiest question he's ever heard. And it's a question he best not fuck up because there will be no coming back from it. No second chance. This is it. If he answers wrong or doesn't answer at all, she'll be gone and some other guy will come to town and see this pretty girl and the way she smiles when she brings them their order in the diner and they'll be able to say just the right thing and sweep her off the feet and in a few years, she won't even remember who he is while every night, he knows he'll have dreams – and nightmares – filled with nothing but her and he will never be able to move on from her. There is no moving on from a girl like Beth Greene because a girl like Beth Greene is _the_ girl.

Daryl stares at her and swallows the sawdust he's convinced is still on his tongue.

"You," he answers in his gruff, low voice but it's not like he needs to shout it from the rooftops. Beth is the kind of girl who doesn't need that because she's staring at him and no matter how low he's said it, she knows, without a doubt, what he's said.

"Oh," she then says as if she's all surprised and tears are flooding her eyes again but she's smiling, too. Smiling so wide, she's practically laughing.

She flies to him then, rushing across the room, and her body slams against his. His arms instantly are tight around her, nearly lifting her off her feet, the tips of her toes grazing the floor as her arms circle around his neck.

"I need ya', Beth," he says because it's not just a want. And Beth tightens her arms even more around his neck and squeezes him and he holds her crushed to him.

He decides right then and there he's not going to ever allow an inch between them again.

…

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**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	14. Part Fourteen

**This is turning out to be a longer story than I originally planned on. And watching last night's episode, it really makes me want to write something for that, too. I really need to stop my brain with all of these ideas. **

* * *

…

**Part Fourteen. **

"Staring isn't going to make him get here any faster," Lori says, coming up beside her as Beth stands at the front window, staring out, watching the street.

Beth exhales a small sigh. "I know. I'm just nervous."

Lori nods, understanding. "It'll be alright."

Beth is quiet for a few minutes, her eyes still not leaving the window. Her stomach is knotted and she hasn't been able to eat anything all day – not since Daryl told her the night before that he was going to go to the motel that morning and talk with his brother about some things. She tells herself again and again to believe in Daryl. He has told her that he wants and needs her and he isn't going anywhere. But as he has said himself, Merle Dixon has a strong hold over his brother and maybe Daryl won't be able to break away from him. Maybe Beth is losing him again right now and she doesn't even know it.

She stares out the window, waiting for him because he promised her that he will come to the bakery when he is done so he can continue building the display cases. And she wants to believe that he will come. It's just been so long and with each passing minute, her stomach somehow seems to tighten more and more and she doesn't know what to do with herself to distract herself.

"Come on," Lori rubs her back. "I have some more papers in the back office I need us to go over and sign."

Beth nods and it is only with great reluctance, she is finally able to turn away from the windows but her stomach knots don't lessen any more.

…

Lori has to leave because she gets a call from Carl's school that he's sick and she has to come pick him up so Beth is by herself in the bakery when she finally hears the rumble of a motorcycle. She perks up like a dog and then rushes for the door. Daryl pulls to the curb in front of the bakery and before he can even climb off the bike, Beth is rushing outside, feeling so elated and light, she's almost near tears.

Daryl gets off the bike and Beth launches herself at him and standing there in the middle of the sidewalk, his arms are tightly wrapped around her, holding her just barely off the ground so her feet brush against the pavement and her arms are a vice around his neck. She swears she can feel him smiling a little against the side of her neck.

…

"How did it go?" She finally feels brave enough to ask after he's been working on the cases for a couple of hours and she's been helping him.

He shrugs and he's holding nails in between his lips at the moment as he hammers so he can't answer her anyway. She waits a few more minutes until he's finished and his mouth is free.

"Was he angry?" Beth asks softly. Hesitantly.

Again, Daryl shrugs. "Merle's always angry."

She nods as if she knows that and she wants to say more but she really doesn't know what. She has no idea what Daryl has said to his brother and yet, she understands what he has done. For her. He has chosen her over his brother. His family. His blood. And though Daryl has even said that Merle's not good for him, he has shown such a fierce loyalty to him that the magnitude of Daryl actually stepping away from him – and for her – it makes the breath catch in her throat as she keeps watching him.

"What do you think?" He asks, breaking through her thoughts and it takes her a moment for her to realize what he's referring to.

"Oh," she smiles a little and looks at the first finished case. "It's perfect, Daryl."

"How you imagined it?" He asks and he's frowning a little, running his hands over the wooden case with the glass front, making sure there are no imperfections.

Beth nods quickly and she goes to him, slipping her arms around his waist. "It's exactly how I imagined it." She stands on her toes and kisses him lightly on his cheek. "Thank you," she says to him softly, her eyes staring at his face and it's just not for building her the cases but she doesn't know how to voice everything else.

Daryl looks at her, his eyes intently locked with hers, and he seems to know what she is trying to say to him without actually saying it. He nods once and his hand slips to the small of her back. Without a word, he presses a light kiss to her temple and she leans into him, resting her head on his chest, feeling his heart strongly beating within his chest. She closes her eyes and tries to clear everything else from her mind and focus on only that.

…

She watches him closely over the next few days. She can't help it. She feels like she has settled herself right on the edge of the cliff and she's doing her best to balance herself but she's terrified that Daryl is going to start resenting her or showing regret over what he has done; blame her for making him make a choice between her or his own brother and she'll topple right over the side.

She hadn't made him choose, had she? She doesn't think she had because she had been so convinced that he had made the choice already and his brother had won.

She wants to ask him what happened between him and Merle when he went to go see him at the motel but it's something else she's too terrified of to think of let alone actually ask him.

She keeps waking up every morning and he's in bed beside her and every night, he comes into the diner for dinner and he never looks at her differently than how he always used to look at her – pre-Merle – and she tries to get herself to relax because Daryl is there. He's still there and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere.

…

She stops by the motel to see Axel, Oscar and of course, Cornelius, just as Oscar is finishing up his shift and Axel is taking over for the day.

"Mornin', gorgeous," Axel smiles widely at her as she soon as she steps into the front office. "And what do we owe this pleasure?"

Beth holds up a contained. "I'm walking around town, offering free samples and enticing people to come to the bakery. The grand opening is on Saturday."

She peels the lid back and reveals cupcakes. Axel grins as he takes one and even Oscar cracks a little smile as he takes one as well.

Axel takes a bite, frosting in his moustache, and he lets out a moan. "You were sent to us from heaven above," he declares and Beth laughs a little, her cheeks warming.

"Is he talking about me or the cupcake?" She wonders to Oscar and the man just smirks a little, licking his own frosting. "Do you have any guests staying with you at the moment that I can hand these out to?"

Axel's smile seems to drop immediately and even Oscar looks uncomfortable.

Beth feels her throat grow dry and she does her best to swallow past it. "Room six?" She guesses and neither Axel or Oscar say anything but give the slightest head nods.

…

She doesn't have to do this. There is nothing that says that she has to give room six a free cupcake and yet, she feels her feet heading her in that direction nonetheless.

She knocks on the door and feels her knees quivering as she hears movement from inside. The door swings open and Merle Dixon stands there, his eyes squinting from the bright sun shining that day. The room past him is dark and smells stale of smoke and body odor and Beth sees a naked woman lying asleep in the bed.

"What the hell do you want?" Merle growls at her.

Beth swallows again and holds the container tightly in her hands. "I'm handing free cupcakes out today to advertise my bakery opening on Saturday," she says and she is silently commending herself for getting all of that out with throwing up all over this man's shoes.

Why does Merle Dixon terrify her so much? And how is it possible that he and Daryl are brothers when Daryl has never done anything except give her butterflies?

Merle looks at her for an eternal second and then takes a cupcake. "This how you keepin' my brother around? Feedin' him sweets? Knew you were like that the first time I saw you. Man can become addicted to a girl like you and the sweetness you got between your legs."

Beth doesn't say anything for a moment, staring up into this man's face. She tells herself not to be afraid of this man. This is Daryl's brother and while Merle may not be a good man, he won't hurt her. She tells herself that he won't hurt her. Not when she's standing in the open like this and Axel and Oscar are so nearby.

"I love your brother," she says, her voice sounding surprisingly strong but she knows that it's saying those words that are giving her the sudden bout of strength.

Merle looks at her for a moment and then smirks a little. "He don't love you though, sweetness. Never will neither. But you already know that," he says and with that, he steps back into the room and slams the door shut in her face.

…

She knows Daryl doesn't love her. She has never deluded herself into thinking he does. But to hear it from someone else, to have it actually confirmed and to hear the words, it encases her heart and squeezes so hard, it almost hurts and when Daryl comes into the diner that night for dinner, she can't even bring herself to smile.

…

"There's too much to do still," she weakly protests as Daryl tugs her towards his bike but she climbs on behind him nonetheless and circles her arms around his waist.

When he drives them out of town, she figures out fairly quickly where he's taking her. The bakery is opening tomorrow and she is going to be spending the rest of the evening and early tomorrow baking and she feels as if she has already lost her mind. Opening her own bakery. What the hell was she thinking when she made this decision? What if it fails? What if no one likes it? They like her desserts at the diner, sure, but would they actually come into her bakery?

Daryl stops them off to the side of the road and he has his crossbow with him but he always has his crossbow with him when he goes into the woods. He takes her hand and leads her through the trees and they come across the small footbridge.

She sighs as she sits down, hanging her legs over the side, and Daryl sits down beside her. He doesn't prompt her to talk before she opens her mouth and the words start spilling out.

"What if I've just made the stupidest mistake of my life?" She asks. "What if this doesn't work? I'll have no money and I'll be just some waitress for the rest of my life. That's not what my daddy was talking about in his letter. He wanted me to go out and do these amazing things and what if I can't?"

"Thought your daddy just wanted you to be happy," Daryl says in his soft voice.

Beth sighs because she knows he's right but she doesn't want to hear that right now. She wants to panic and wallow and he needs to let her do that without insisting on being logical.

"What am I going to do if this bakery doesn't work out?" She asks, looking at him.

Daryl's quiet for a moment and then shrugs. "You'll figure it out. You're tough, Beth. Toughest girl I know."

She shakes her head and thinks about the scar on her wrist hidden beneath the bracelets she still hasn't told him about. "I'm not tough at all," she protests.

"You put up with me," he reminds her. "That makes you tougher than you know. And no matter what happens… we'll figure it out."

She looks at him silently for a moment. "You and me?" She asks almost in a whisper.

"'Course you and me. Who else?" He frowns a little, confused.

And Beth realizes that that's exactly what she needs to hear in that moment. She leans into him and putting her hands on his cheeks, she kisses him.

…

The bakery hours are from nine a.m. to four p.m. but she's been awake and out of the house since six, in the back of the bakery, baking her cakes and cookies, brownies and cupcakes and filling the cases with everything. She makes sure the chalkboard menus hanging on the walls look as perfect as they can and when Daryl comes around eight, she has him put out the sidewalk chalkboard outside.

"It looks perfect, Bethy," Maggie beams at her. She has come to town for the grand opening. "And I am going to be your first customer. Slice of carrot cake, please," she says as she slides a five dollar bill across the counter.

Beth smiles as she goes to fetch it for her and she places it in the small white box with 'Sprinkles' on top and she hands it to Maggie along with a plastic fork. She watches with nervous anticipation as Maggie takes her first bite and Maggie looks at her for a moment, breaking into a smile and Beth exhales a deep breath.

Daryl then orders himself a coffee and two peanut butter cookies and when he tells her to keep the change, Beth smiles at him and feels her stomach flip and she leans across the counter, giving him a kiss.

"I love you," she whispers to him.

And it's okay that he doesn't say anything in return because it's nine o'clock then and the bakery is officially open and she suddenly doesn't have time to think about it because a couple of more people have come in.

Just like that, away she goes.

…

It is strange to her to have the grand opening on Saturday only to be closed on Sunday and Monday but Lori tells her that she has wet the people's appetites and now, they will be waiting with anticipation to return to Sprinkles again and Lori is her partner and seems to understand some of the business aspects better than her – having worked in the flower shop for years – so Beth agrees.

It's also strange to her to go to the diner for dinner and not working there anymore but after the bakery is closed for the day on Saturday night, Daryl comes to get her and taking her hand, he tells her that she needs to eat and he takes her to the diner.

They sit in his usual booth and Jacqui hands them menus though they don't need them and sitting there, Beth feels how absolutely exhausted she is. Not just from today but from all of the days before leading to this one.

"You a'right?" Daryl asked from across the table, looking at her.

She gives him a small smile and nods her head. "I can't wait to eat and then go home and drown myself in a bubble bath." He smirks a little at that. "Want to join me?" She asks and she's only teasing him and yet, just imagining Daryl Dixon in a bubble bath makes her giggle and she suddenly wants him to join her very much.

Daryl looks at her for a moment and then smirks again. "Fine," he agrees even as he's shaking his head at it all and Beth lets out a little laugh and she doesn't even want to eat anymore even as her stomach is rumbling. She just wants to get home now. "What am I gonna smell like?"

"Lavender," she beams and he grumbles the word under his breath as if he can't believe it and she can't really believe it either. It just makes her laugh again and she wants to tell him again that she loves him but she swallows the words down and just keeps smiling.

…

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**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	15. Part Fifteen

**Daryl's POV in the next chapter. **

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…

**Part Fifteen.**

Beth laughs as Daryl tries to free his hands from the bubbles covering them and she sips from the beer bottle that they're sharing between the two of them. They sit in the claw-foot bathtub, her body between his legs, her back settled against his chest and the water is warm and the air smells of lavender. It's the perfect end to a hectic day. Hectic but good. Lori had totaled the takings for the day and she said it was a good opening. If numbers continue to stay around this, things will be good for them.

Her laughter fades as his hands slide down her arms and his thumb swiftly slips beneath the bracelets and he finds the scar as if he's always known it was there. And maybe he has known this entire time. He rubs light circles over it. She goes still and the beer bottle freezes in her hand and she's so relieved she's facing away from him because right now, she doesn't know if she would be able to look him in the face.

"You've never told me 'bout it," he says quietly, his thumb rubbing against the scar.

"No," she shakes her head.

"How come?"

She shrugs a shoulder then and wishes she had avoided this conversation with him for a little longer. "I'm ashamed of it," she whispers then, her fingers clutching the bottle so tightly, she wonders how strong a grip would have to be to break the glass.

"Showed you mine and it's not like I'm proud of 'em," he grunts.

"It's not like that, Daryl," she quickly shakes her head and she turns her head, looking at him. His eyes are intensely settled on her. "_You_ make me ashamed of it."

His brow furrows and he frowns at her, confused.

"You've been through so many horrible things. Such awful abuse. And never once did you just try to give up on everything," she tries to explain. "My mom and brother died in an instant. One second they were here and the next they weren't and I… I was so sure I didn't want to live in this world without them."

Daryl is quiet and doesn't say anything.

"I knew it was a mistake though," she's whispering now. "The second I tried, I knew."

She exhales a shaky breath as if she's about to start crying and though she feels the scratchiness in her throat, she doesn't feel like she's going to start. She closes her eyes and leans her head back against the front of his shoulder. She feels his arms slide around her middle and hold her close, squeezing her almost too tightly but she doesn't mind and she doesn't want him to let go.

"You're the toughest girl I know," he says lowly, his lips right to her ear. "You don't know it. But you are."

And she admits that she doesn't know that and she certainly doesn't believe it but sitting in that warm bubble water with him, feeling the safest in his arms that she has ever felt, she thinks like maybe it's something she can one day start to learn. As long as he's there with her to remind her sometimes.

…

The first month at the bakery is going good. She figures out what sells the most and what isn't as popular so she can start dividing her time better making everything she needs to and giving the customers what they want. She still sells her desserts to T-Dog to sell in the diner and a few parents have commissioned her to bake birthday cakes for their children. It's all going to so good and she hopes her daddy is able to see all of this happening and he's happy.

Things with Daryl are going good, too. Really good. They're back to living in the apartment together and do mundane things together like grocery shopping and laundry and he'll come and pick her up from the bakery sometimes and they'll go to Rick and Lori's house for dinner. Her favorite time though is when they go to the woods for the weekend and sleep on the ground beside a fire and it's just them and the stars and trees and no one else for miles.

She tells him that she loves him a few more times, always whispering it in his ear as if she doesn't want anyone else to overhear and though he never tells her anything in response, he always seems to hold her a little tighter, his eyes lingering on her a little longer after she says those words to him and she begins to think that maybe she doesn't need to hear them from him because she knows he cares about her and maybe that is enough.

…

"You need to cut your hair," she laughs a little as she lifts her hands and pushes the hair hanging in his eyes back from his vision.

"Yeah?" He asks, sounding distracted or bored or a mixture of both but she can hear the amusement in his voice.

She looks at him for a moment, tilting her head slightly to the side, studying him a little. She then shakes her head. "No. I like it like this. Can't really imagine you with short hair anyway."

"Was short a few years ago," he shrugs as he keeps sanding down the piece of wood. He's been hired by Martinez's wife to build new cabinets for their kitchen and he's in the backyard, Beth keeping him company since it's Monday and the bakery is closed. "Didn' like it that much," he says.

She leans forward again and brushes the hair from his forehead though it falls right back and she smiles a little. "I like having something I can grab a hold of," she then says in a quiet voice and even she feels her cheeks blush a little so it's no surprise when she sees the tips of Daryl's ear turn pink.

He lifts his head and looks at her and after a moment, he smirks and shakes his head at her. "Better watch yourself, girl," he says. "Got all this work I gotta get done so I can get paid and take care of you."

She feels her stomach flutter a little at that but she's still feeling playful. "You always take the best care of me," she says in a low, trying her best to sound flirtatious.

"Stop," he says though a smile is fighting to break through and she laughs softly.

…

Every day, she wishes her daddy was still alive so he could see how she has worked to make his letter come true. She has gone out into the world and started something on her own – something she really loves doing – and the people in Evergreen seem to like having her there with them. She has found her place and she wakes up every morning, feeling as if she has truly wound up where she has always meant to be.

And she has fallen in love. She has met a man and she has given him her entire heart and every time she looks at him, she hopes she can spend the rest of her life with him. And she hopes that he wants the same thing with her.

…

For Carl's birthday, she bakes a chocolate cake shaped like a Lego man because even though he's technically a teenager now, she knows how much he loves Legos and Lori had asked if it was something she is able to do.

When Beth brings the final product over to the house that morning for the party that afternoon, Lori gasps and immediately takes pictures and Carl exclaims that it's awesome. Rick promptly pays her more than the amount they had previously agreed to and ignores her when she tries to give him some of it back.

She goes home for a little back before she and Daryl are going back for the party and she comes in to find Daryl asleep on the bed. He had gotten up when she had even though she told him that it was Sunday and there was no reason for him to be up so early. He hadn't listened and he had taken a shower and when she left him to go to the bakery to finish the cake, he had been on the couch, drinking a cup of coffee. It seems like after she left, he agreed about having no reason to be up yet. He is always an early riser and she sometimes encourages him to just be lazy.

She smiles as she tugs off her shoes and still fully dressed, she crawls onto the bed to lay down beside him. He remains asleep though he can sense she's back because his head moves across his pillow a little closer to her. She watches him for a few minutes, studying his face – the long hair, the scruffy facial hair, the lines and creases and angles of his face.

He never believes her when she tells him he's so handsome. He just scoffs and shakes his head and turns away. Even after all of this time knowing her, he still seems to get so uncomfortable when she compliments him. Beth isn't one to be deterred though. She knows Daryl has gone through most of his life without anyone ever saying a kind word towards him and she supposes she just wants to make up for all of that. He deserves it. No one deserves it more.

"I love you, Daryl," she whispers to him even though he's sleeping.

"Love you, too," he then mumbles back and she feels the breath catch in her throat.

She stares at him with slightly wide eyes but he is still sleeping and she wonders if he has any idea what he has just said to her and if he even meant it.

…

"You're glowing," Lori teases her with a kind smile as they are in the kitchen, putting trays of hamburger and hot dog buns and condiments together to take outside to the back deck. Carl and his friends are in the midst of a water balloon fight, chasing one another around and shouting and screaming. Daryl had been helping Rick at the grill but Carl had pulled him into the game, telling him he needed help with logistics.

"Am I?" Beth asks innocently though she doesn't doubt that she is.

"Any reason in particular?" Lori asks.

Beth is quiet for a moment, actually thinking it over. She looks through the window over the sink and smiles faintly to herself as she sees Daryl crouched in the grass beside Carl, talking with the boy, a water balloon cradled in his hand. She feels a flutter in her stomach just from watching him.

She hasn't let on what he had said to her that morning in their bed in his sleep because a part of her is terrified that he was sputter and take it back and she wants to hold onto those words for as long as she can.

She looks to Lori to find the woman looking at her with a smile. Beth smiles, too, and shrugs her shoulders a little.

"I'm just happy," she says and she must have looked embarrassed about it for some reason because Lori reaches a hand out then, touching her arm.

"I'm so glad," Lori smiles – small but warm – and Beth smiles in return. "And you've made Daryl happy, too. Believe it or not, that man is quite the surly one," she says and Beth laughs at that. "But since being with you… he smiles more. Actually gives answers instead of grunts. He's softened. Don't tell him I said that," Lori quickly adds and Beth smiles, shaking her head.

"I promise," she says.

They carry the trays out to the deck where Rick has just called to the kids that lunch is ready and they all come running. Beth is able to step out of the way just in time and she goes down the steps to where Daryl is standing, still with his water balloon.

"How did you get out of a water balloon fight unscathed?" She asks with a smile, taking in his dry appearance.

"The kids have shitty aim," he shrugs and tosses the balloon from hand to hand. "Don't take their time. Just throw without lookin' at the target," he says and she smiles as he turns her around so she's standing in front of him and they're both looking towards the deck. "Watch this," he then says in her ear and she shivers even though it's nearing ninety that day and they're all sticky with sweat.

He's wearing a tee-shirt with the sleeves cut off and she sees his arm muscles on either side of her. She knows it's silly but she thinks she loves few things in this world more than Daryl's arm muscles.

"Rick!" Daryl suddenly calls out.

The man is back at the grill and he turns at the sound of his name. Daryl instantly throws the water balloon and within seconds, it has made contact with its target – the target this time being Rick's chest and it bursts, the water soaking his shirt. She can hear Daryl smiling behind her as she breaks out into the laughter. The kids look and start laughing, too, and Lori is laughing probably the hardest.

Rick does his best to frown. "That's assaulting an officer of the law, Dixon!"

Daryl just wraps his arms around Beth, keeping her to his chest, and keeps smiling.

…

She is in the bathroom of the diner, shaking slightly, near tears, and when there is a soft knock on the door, she flies up to unlock it, opening it and allowing Sasha to slip through before locking the door again behind her.

"Okay. This one is just a five minute wait," Sasha says, pulling the pregnancy test from the nondescript brown paper bag she has just gotten at the drugstore. "I got the one with the shortest wait time, figuring you would want that."

Beth does her best to swallow. "Thanks, Sasha," she whispers.

Sasha looks at her and pulls her into a hug, Beth clinging to her until they both hear T-Dog ringing the bell from the kitchen and Sasha has to get back to work.

Alone in the bathroom again, Beth's hands shake as she pulls the test from the box and reads the directions twice through before sitting on the toilet. When she's done, she rests the test on the counter and leans against the wall across from it, staring at it and biting at the skin around her nails.

She has no idea how this has happened. Alright. She _knows_ how this has happened but at the same time, she and Daryl are careful. She's on the pill. Something like this isn't supposed to happen at all. And though she has always wanted to be a mother and she has imagined having a baby with Daryl on more than one occasion, she wasn't expecting something like this to happen to them. Not yet.

Most days, she knows she and Daryl are happy together but sometimes, she still isn't quite sure how long he's going to stay with her. She sometimes still wonders if he actually wants to be with her or if one day, she'll come home and he'll just be gone.

Hot tears flood her eyes and she closes them, squeezing them shut. Daryl is a loyal man. An honorable man. If she is actually pregnant, she knows he'll stay with her. Because of the baby. And he'll probably spend the rest of his life, resenting both her and the baby because this isn't what he had planned. She doesn't know what his plans are but she doubts that this is it.

This isn't her plan either. She considers herself old-fashioned. She always thought she would be married before she had a baby. If she is to ever marry Daryl now, if he ever asks her, she knows it will be because of the baby.

She's not sure how much time has passed but when she opens her eyes, she sees something starting to form in the small display window of the test and she steps towards it on shaky knees and picks it up with trembling fingers.

A plus sign. A pink plus sign. Positive. She's pregnant. She's going to have a baby. She's going to have Daryl's baby. She and Daryl are going to have a baby together.

As her mind begins racing – and just like that, her entire world has changed – she stares at the test and feels herself begin to smile.

But she feels herself begin to cry, too.

…

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**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	16. Part Sixteen

**I had this chapter as well as part seventeen written yesterday but I wound up deleting it all because I honestly hated the way I had taken the story. I think I'm happy with this new version and I hope you like it, too. **

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…

**Part Sixteen.**

Beth is acting weird.

He immediately picks up on it and watches her carefully. He came home from his work and Beth was there, flying around the kitchen, telling him that she was cooking them both dinner so they could sit down at the table like a normal couple and talk about their days. Daryl didn't argue. He rarely does when it comes to things like this because he assumes this is what being in a relationship is like and when it comes to this whole thing between them, he just follows Beth's lead a lot of the time because it's not like he has any idea what to do.

He goes to the bedroom to change and wash up and when he comes out again, Beth is setting plates and silverware down on the table.

"Need help?" He asks.

"No, no," she quickly shakes her head and she's reminding him of a hummingbird right now, moving around so fast, his eyes can hardly focus on her. "I made that roasted chicken you loved so much the last time I made it and I have potatoes and green beans-" and she's not paying attention and she sets the glasses too close to the edge of the table. They crash to the ground and shatter and she jumps and he crouches down to pick up the glass. "I'm pregnant," she blurts out.

A shard of the glass slices across his palm. "Fuck," he hisses.

…

They stand in the bathroom and as she wraps his hand, he hears her sniffling and he frowns down at the top of her head.

"Wha's the matter?" He asks.

She shakes her head and sniffles again. "I'm sorry," she says softly. "We were careful…"

He shrugs then and even though his heart is pounding in his chest, he feels oddly calm about this whole thing which is just so strange because he never would have thought he would be alright if some girl came to him and told him she was pregnant. But this isn't just some girl. This is Beth.

"Why are you sorry?" He asks, staring holes into her head, willing her to look at him, and she finally does, lifting her head, her eyes wet and red but her cheeks dry.

"You want a baby?" She asks and she sounds to be in complete disbelief and he can't exactly blame her.

"No."

He's not going to lie to her. Why the hell would he ever want a kid? Especially with the way he grew up? The Dixon blood is poison and it's not just some ridiculous idea he has stuck in his head. Most of the people in these parts would agree with him.

"But I'm not gonna ask you to get rid of it," he says.

She stiffens at that and he sees fire rush into her eyes as she stares at him. "I'm not going to do that," she says with a hardness in her voice as if all previous emotions have been forgotten. She finishes wrapping his hand and her hands immediately fall away from him and she takes a step back even though the bathroom is too small and there's not that much room to move around in.

"And I'm not askin' you to," he shakes his head, his eyes never leaving hers.

She looks at him for a moment, studies him, and then shakes her head slightly. "I'm not expecting anything from you, Daryl," she says in a quiet voice, that fire fading from her once again.

Daryl can't help it. He feels himself getting angry at that. Why the hell isn't she expecting anything? Does she think he just knocks women up and leaves them behind without taking care of them or what's his? This is Beth and that's his kid and he may be a Dixon but he's never been the sort to just turn and run away from something just because it's too hard or ugly.

He exhales a breath and decides to just ignore what she's said. "We gotta go to the doctor or somethin'?" He asks and he is faced with just how next to nothing he knows about any of this.

She keeps looking at him and doesn't say anything but then she nods.

…

Evergreen is such a small town, they have one doctor and a couple of nurses for basically everything. Her office is set up in a renovated old house and he and Beth are shown to one of the back examination rooms. Beth sits on the table in one of those green gowns and Daryl stands close – but not too close – with his arms crossed over his chest. Neither talk.

He figures this must be the baby room because posters hang on the walls about changes a woman's body goes through while pregnant and there are 3D models on the windowsill, showing the baby in different stages, growing in the womb.

He looks back to Beth. She looks like a mixture of nervous and scared and he tries to think of something he can say to her.

"Ya' think the baby will have my hair or yours?" He asks suddenly, practically blurting it out, and Beth looks at him, with wide, surprised eyes.

"I… I haven't thought about it yet," she manages to say.

"Didn' pay enough attention in school to genetics and all that but doesn' the dark hair usually win out?" He asks.

She smiles faintly at that. "I was terrible at science. My teacher always had to call my parents in to tell them I was never paying attention. I was always filling my notebook up with little poems instead of listening to the lecture. Math class, too."

He smiles a little at that, too.

The door opens and they both look to see Dr. Carol Peletier enter, smiling at them both with a file in her hands.

"Good morning, you two," she goes directly to the sink to wash her hands. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"Um," Beth stumbles, back to looking scared, and looks to Daryl as if hoping he can explain it.

"She took a pregnancy test and it was positive," Daryl finishes for her.

"Alright," Carol looks to Beth and she's still smiling warmly. "Let's confirm that."

Daryl has no idea what the doctor is doing and he takes steps closer until he's standing right next to Beth, ready to protect her if the doc does anything that hurts her. And as if she can read his mind, Beth looks up at him and gives him a small smile. As she lays back and puts her feet in the stirrup, Daryl keeps himself at her head. It doesn't really matter to him that he's been between her thighs countless times. He doesn't feel comfortable standing there and watching the doctor do this.

Beth winces just slightly and Daryl bristles but then she gives him a small smile and reaches a hand out, brushing her fingers along his arm. He doesn't think or hesitate before he takes her hand and holds onto it. He doesn't miss the way she smiles.

"Well, Beth, you are definitely pregnant and I'm putting you at around eight weeks already," Carol declares with a smile.

Somehow, actually hearing it from a doctor, it makes the room spin around him.

…

He can't help it. He's been thinking about Merle a lot lately.

That morning, he had gone to the motel and had told him he couldn't have him around anymore. He didn't _want_ him around. Merle being Merle just couldn't listen to what Daryl was saying. He had to attack. Always attack. Tell Daryl that he was tossing his own blood aside for some dumb bitch; how no one was ever going to love him or be there for him like ol' Merle.

He thinks of what Merle will say to him now about all of this.

"She's got you trapped for eighteen years now, baby brother. Best get out while you still can and she can't slap child support on you."

Daryl shakes his head and tries to get rid of his brother's voice but the more he tries, the louder Merle seems to be talking.

"Didn' I teach you nothin' 'bout always keepin' it wrapped? And wha' 'bout her? She says she's on the pill but you 'lieve her? Seems like she just wanted to get her claws in you."

"You don't know nothin'," Daryl says back to the voice in his head but he just hears Merle laugh in response.

…

"That apartment's not very big," Rick notes once Daryl tells him.

Daryl shrugs. He hasn't really thought about it and Rick gives him a look because he _should_ have already been thinking about a lot of things and Daryl knows it but he doesn't even know where to start.

Before he can leave, Rick hands him a couple of books he and Lori had gotten when she was pregnant with Carl and had been keeping as well as a listing of available real estate in and around Evergreen.

"Better get that lil' house with the white picket fence jus' like Beth would want," Merle chuckles in his head as Daryl drives from the Grimes house back home.

Home. Beth is his home. And he'll remind himself of that as many times as he has to. He just hopes he finally accepts that sooner rather than later.

…

One day, it's not there and then the next, it is, having seemed to just pop overnight but Beth wakes up and she suddenly has this baby bump and she has to go buy a few new clothes to fit her new frame. Beth is such a little thing that even at just four months, she looks really pregnant and there's no hiding it anymore and each day, she just seemed to grow bigger.

And at first, he's too afraid to touch it. He looks at the bump and at Beth and he can't bring himself to touch either of them because hasn't he already fucked up enough things? He's not being crazy. He's been hearing it his entire life and he believes it to an extent. He's already poisoned their kid by giving them his Dixon blood. If he touches it, it will be messed up even more.

But one night, as they're lying in bed, Beth takes his hand and doesn't let him pull it away as she drags it over the bump. He's tense as she clutches his hand, keeping it there, and she's watching his face as he seems to stare at anything else.

"You're a good man, Daryl Dixon," she whispers to him then. "And this baby is going to be good, too."

And then, as if taking its cue, their was the slightest nudge against the palm of his hand and he felt his eyes widen as he looked at the bump and then at Beth as if she had been the one to do it. She just smiles though and when her hand releases his to lift to his face, brushing some of his hair back, Daryl's hand remains where it is and he keeps it there for the rest of the night.

…

He reads the baby books cover to cover and takes to reading certain chapters two or three times and notices that Beth isn't reading any of them. When he asks her why not, she just smiles and shrugs.

"Women have been giving birth for thousands and millions of years without reading books," she smiles at him and her eyes are twinkling and he smirks, knowing she's teasing him.

He smirks then and tosses his highlighter at her and she laughs. "You need to drink more milk," is all he says.

"Only if you drink some with me."

He grumbles something and she laughs because they both know he's going to.

"Pathetic," Merle laughs in his head.

Daryl promptly gets him to shut up because Beth is still smiling and she comes to sit with him on the couch, his hand instantly sliding over the bump and feeling their baby and she leans into him, sighing as if perfectly content with everything in that moment and Daryl finds himself agreeing.

…

The house is a small yellow two-story with a small front yard and a fenced in back yard and a 'For Rent' sign stabbed in the grass. He goes to take a look at it first, not wanting to get Beth's hopes up in case it's a piece of shit, and the realtor assures him that the house is in good shape and has passed all of the inspections but he looks over every nook and cranny himself.

When he brings Beth back to show it to her, she stands on sidewalk and looks up at it but she's not as happy as he was expecting her to be.

"Not much more than our rent now every month," he says, thinking that's what she must be worried about.

Beth is quiet for a moment and then slowly moves her eyes from the house to him. She shakes her head. "You don't have to do this, Daryl," she tells him in a soft voice and she's looking so damn sad, he remembers that night he found her sitting outside her motel room, looking up at the stars.

Daryl frowns at her a little. "Yeah, I do. Kid needs a yard and you need a bigger kitchen," he says and is looking at her as if she should know all of this, too, already. She just keeps staring at him though and he wishes she would stop looking so damn sad and that he knew why she's looking like that.

"What?" He finally asks.

She shakes her head. "And what about you? Do you want this house?"

And now he gets it. But he shrugs as if he doesn't. "Garage a good size. Could do a lot of work in there." She's nodding but still staring at him and he reaches out, dropping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her gently into his side. He knows he's going to have to say it. "Yeah, Beth. I want this house," he then says to her quietly.

She looks up at him and she doesn't say anything. She seems to be studying him and he lets her, just looking down at her.

"Okay," she nods after a moment and he sees her visibly swallow.

He keeps his eyes on her. "You want this house?" He asks and as he does, he feels lead settle in his stomach because she's obviously so worried about him wanting any of this and does she have any idea that he's fucking petrified of all of this? But he's here and he's trying and that has to count for something.

"Yeah," Beth says softly, nodding her head. "I want this house. With you," she then adds in a whisper and Daryl releases a breath he's been holding.

He looks at the house and then at her and she's smiling a little easier now, more relaxed and her eyes twinkling and his lips twitch, too. Maybe this whole thing could work out between them and for the kid.

It's already working. He just needs to keep working at it because this is something good. Something great. And he's not looking to fuck it up or have it end anytime soon no matter what the voices in his head are saying to him because right now, he has Merle calling him pussy-whipped and laughing at this _lie_ he's making himself live because he's a Dixon. Dixon's don't rent nice little houses like this and have pretty little girlfriends like Beth and have babies that are normal and healthy and good and _happy_. This isn't his life. It can't be.

And one day – probably soon – he's going to wake up and Beth won't be there anymore or she'll be walking out and what the hell will he be able to say to her to get her to stay? Because if she wants to leave, it's not like he would be able to blame her. Hell, he'll probably help her pack if that day ever comes.

But that day isn't today. Because today, he walks her into the house and gives her the tour and watches her face as her smile grows and grows between each room. And when she sees the kitchen, she gasps and spins around and throws her arms around him and he wraps her up in his arms and feels the kid nudge in her belly pressed against him and he allows himself to smile.

This can be his life and it can be a damn good one. He just has to remember that.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	17. Part Seventeen

**I got a review from a guest yesterday on part sixteen that I don't agree with but thank you for taking the time to read and give me your honest opinion. Sorry I lost you as a reader. But to everyone else still reading, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest of the story. Just a couple of chapters left after this one. Daryl's POV for the next part. **

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…

**Part Seventeen.**

"You hated me when I first came here," she whispers to him one night in bed when she thinks he's already asleep and she gives him a smile she knows he can hear even in the darkness of the bedroom.

"Didn' hate you," he grunts and he's half asleep. "Scared of you."

"I would think you weren't afraid of anything," she says, a smile still in her tone.

"Pretty girl's livin' in Evergreen all a sudden and servin' me my dinner," he says. "Came out of nowhere and smacked me in the face. Was never expectin' you."

Her smile softens and she feels her cheeks warm. She loves when he's nearing sleep like this because he seems to be so much more open and willing to say such things that make her heart flutter like it has sprouted wings and is trying to escape her chest. And she wonders if he has any idea what his words like that do to her.

And she knows he's ready to fall asleep but she doesn't care and she leans across the small space between them and she presses her lips to his in a soft kiss.

"I love you, Daryl Dixon," she whispers to him.

"Love you, too," he mumbles and then she hears his breath drop off and just like that, he's asleep and she wonders if he's even realized what he's said to her.

…

Even though he doesn't want her to, she keeps working at the bakery up until two weeks before she's due. She says it's no big deal and she likes to stay active. It's important to her that she keep working and keep the bakery open and running for as long as she can.

And he has developed this habit of calling her every hour just to check up on her. She thinks it's cute but also annoying and she tries to suppress her sigh every time the phone rings and it's him, making sure she's not on her feet for too long at a time and that she's not lifting anything too heavy. And she stands there and wants to roll her eyes as she gives the same answers to the same questions but every time she hangs up, she just wants to squeal like she did when he first asked her out because he is such a good man and it is so shocking to her that more people don't see that.

…

Her water breaks and Daryl is so oddly calm about the whole thing, it almost unsettles her. She knows Daryl isn't the sort of man to freak out yet she had expected a _little_ reaction when they got her to Dr. Peletier and labor really began.

He stands there, never leaving her side and she clutches his hand with hers, probably breaking his fingers but he doesn't even flinch. He just holds her hand back and sometime during it all, she feels him reaching over and brushing sweaty hair back from her face and when she looks up at him, he's looking right back and his eyes are such a dark blue today and when he leans down and kisses her forehead, tears spring in her eyes and she has no idea if it's from that or the excruciating pain.

…

It's a girl and Beth is still crying as Dr. Peletier smiles widely and passes the bloody, crying baby into her arms. Beth looks down at her wailing daughter and she's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. She then turns her head and looks up at Daryl and he's standing there, stone still and looking as if he has slipped into shock.

The nurse takes her away for a moment to get her cleaned and weighed and Dr. Peletier takes a moment to clean Beth as well. Daryl still hasn't moved or said anything and she's not entirely sure what to say or do. The nurse returns and places the baby back in Beth's arms and all of her attention is back to her daughter again. She's clean now and has quieted down and she is bundled in her blanket with her tiny eyes shut and her tiny fingers curled into tiny fists and everything is so tiny and perfect, Beth feels tears welling in her eyes.

"Daryl," she says his name, looking up at him, and that seems to snap him out of whatever he's in, him taking a step closer. "Hold her," she gives him a soft smile.

Daryl hesitates. "Don't know how," he grunts.

She keeps smiling. "Yes, you do," she assures him.

She lifts her arms and he stretches his out and she gently passes the baby to him. He stands there, looking stiff and awkward and staring down at their daughter, and then, slowly, the longer he stares down at her, he finally begins to relax.

…

They name her Molly Annette and it seems over the next few days, everyone in town comes to see the baby and Beth is overwhelmed and everyone's genuine kindness towards her. She had stopped in Evergreen all of that time ago because she needed gas and had decided to stay on a whim and make this her home and now, this is what she has. She has this huge family and she can't imagine being anywhere else.

She knows Daryl was petrified the first time he held her but now, within just a few short days, he is usually the first one to get to Molly when she starts crying. Molly already has some of his dark hair and Beth teases him about genetics and he just smirks and says the kid's already got her mama's eyes.

Having a newborn baby is stressful, of course, but Molly is a good, quiet baby. She doesn't cry that much and it is as if she is taking it easy on her parents so both Beth and Daryl have time to adjust to all of this. The house is a bit of a mess, neither having the time or energy to keep it clean and T-Dog surprises them when he shows up on their doorstep with a mop and bucket of cleaning supplies because he's a bit of a neat freak and he had just been able to imagine how their house is. It seems like Maggie and Glenn are visiting every weekend to help with Molly and Glenn is surprisingly so good around babies, having three younger sisters.

Within the first month, Molly seems to grow to love the sound of Beth playing her guitar and singing her soft lullabies and it always calms her. And when she is a few months old, the first thing she is able to grip is Daryl's hair.

…

She stays home for two months before she goes to the bakery and opens it back up for business. Daryl stays home with Molly and now, Beth is the one to call him every hour to see how things at home are going.

"Don't trust me with our daughter?" Daryl asks and she hears the smirk in his tone.

"Of course I do," she says. "I just miss you two," she then admits and she feels so darn silly because she just saw them this morning and she'll them again in a couple of hours. "She hasn't done anything, right?"

"Yep," Daryl replies and she hears him rustling with something. "Took her out and taught her how to drive just this mornin'."

"Smartass," she grumbles and he chuckles.

"You wan' us to come and see you?" He asks.

"You don't have to do that. I'm just being silly."

…

But a half hour later, she hears the bell of someone entering the shop and she comes out from the back room to see Daryl there with the stroller and even though in the back of her mind, she knew he was probably going to be coming, seeing him there, she burst into a smile as if she hadn't been expecting it at all and she rushes to him.

She throws her arms around his neck and hugs him tight and she feels his arms around her, his lips to her hair and he's smiling a little.

…

"So, have you two talked? _At all_?" Sasha asks as Beth comes to the diner to drop off T-Dog's dessert and pours her a cup of coffee.

Beth doesn't answer but her face seems to say it all because Sasha reaches over and finds her hand, giving it a squeeze.

"You two really need to talk, Beth," Sasha says what she has said so many times before. "You two have a baby together."

Beth sighs and drops her head into her hands. "I know," she almost groans. "And I tell him I love him and he's only told me when he's sleeping or falling asleep and I'm still so scared that he's just going to leave but… he has to love me. Right? I mean, we _do_ have a baby together. We live together. We have this family together. That all means something… right?"

She looks at Sasha and Sasha looks at her.

"I think you two really to talk," Sasha says again and Beth sighs softly because she knows it's what has to be done but her stomach is already knotting at the idea.

…

She is sitting on the bed in their bedroom, folding laundry because they've developed a system where if Daryl washes it, she folds it, and Molly is napping in her crib beside their bed.

"Hey," Daryl is lingering in the doorway. "Can I talk to you?"

She almost drops the pair of socks she's folding and she stares at him, forgetting to answer for a moment. He's the one who wants to talk?

"Sure," she finally remembers herself.

He comes into the room as if nervous and he looks to Molly for a moment before looking to Beth and easing himself down on the bed. He is quiet for a few minutes and she looks at him, her throat dry and her stomach clenching. She looks at him and waits and he picks at the hole in the knee of his jeans.

"Dale's retirin' and sellin' his garage," Daryl suddenly says. "Thinkin' 'bout buyin' it."

Beth looks at him for a moment as if she's not understanding his words. She can't help it. She feels disappointment even though she knows she never should have expected anything and he's talking about his future – and maybe it's their future, too – and that's just as important.

He's looking at her and he looks so nervous and she gives him a small smile. She reaches over and squeezes his knee.

"I think that sounds perfect, Daryl," she smiles at him and he looks at her for a moment before exhaling the breath he's obviously been holding and nods his head once. He keeps sitting there and she wonders if now would be the time to talk about other things; the things she really wants to talk to him about.

But she's so afraid. She admits it. Daryl has called her the toughest girl he knows and with many things, maybe she is but right now, she's sitting next to this man on the bed they share with their daughter sleeping a couple of feet away and she can't open her mouth to ask him what they are. She's too terrified to because what would she say? What would he?

She keeps looking at him and she's so scared.

"I'm gonna talk with Lori. Go over the numbers," he grunts out, standing up.

Molly is awake now, starting to fuss, and he hefts her up. The baby cuddles to his chest immediately and Beth smiles as she looks at them. She doesn't think she'll ever get tired of seeing Daryl and Molly together. He's such a good dad. She always knew he would be and she always gets such a thrill when he proves her right.

This is driving her crazy. It really is because she loves this man. She has a baby with this man. She is building up an entire life with this man and she can't talk to him about the thing she wants to talk about. Daryl's always been quiet and she knows that if they are going to talk about anything, she is going to have to be the one to start the conversation.

And though she knows exactly what she wants from him – she wants some sort of verbal commitment from him; some form of _anything_ that he's not going to go anywhere because even though they have a daughter together, she still lives on this delicate edge that his brother will come back to town and will get Daryl to go back to him – she has absolutely no idea how to say any of that to him.

She has no idea what he thinks of her. She knows he cares for her and he loves their daughter but he has only said he loves Beth while sleeping and she has no idea if he knows that he has said that to her at all. She wants him to say it to her when they're both awake and looking at one another and there is no chance for her to doubt it.

"Think baby girl's hungry," Daryl says, rubbing a hand on Molly's back, and Beth swallows, nodding, not able to say anything.

The chance to speak with him is gone as he turns and heads towards the bedroom door and she looks down to the socks she has long since folded but are still in her hands. She's not tough at all. She's just a coward who is going to stay with a man and live in this strange in-between with him and never move forward with him.

When she was a little girl, she just imagined how her life would be. She would go to college and meet a boy and graduate and they would get married and have a family and she's not blaming her daddy's death on all of this because there is nothing to blame because she is so happy with her bakery and her daughter and Evergreen but she's not happy with this… _thing_ with Daryl.

"Daryl," she blurts his name out before he can leave. She looks at him and he turns in the doorway, looking at her. He doesn't say anything and waits for her to. She is terrified but she has to do this because if she doesn't now, she knows she never will. And she needs to for both her sanity and her heart. She exhales a deep breath. "We should get married."

She's not entirely sure what she is expecting his reaction to be but she swears an hour passes before he says anything though she knows it's probably only been a couple of minutes at the longest. Molly is blinking her big blue eyes from Daryl's arm, not making a sound as if she understands what is going on right now and how utterly important and possibly life-changing right now between Daryl and Beth.

Beth swears she's not breathing. Her heart seems to have even stopped beating and all she can do is sit there and grasp the socks in her hands so tightly, her knuckles turn white and her fingers begin to ache. But she never moves her eyes from Daryl and he never looks away from her.

And then, Daryl finally gives his response.

"A'right," he says and that's all he says but that's all Beth really needs to hear, she realizes.

She starts breathing again.

…

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**Thank you so much for reading and please review!**


	18. Part Eighteen

**One more chapter left in this story. I can't thank you for all of your support and love with this one. **

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**Part Eighteen.**

Rick is able to meet him for lunch though Daryl has no plans on actually eating. When Rick pulls to a stop outside of the jewelry store where Daryl had told him earlier to meet him, Rick steps out of his patrol car and grins at him. Daryl just stands there with his hands in his pockets.

"Expected you to be inside already," Rick says as he steps onto the sidewalk.

Daryl shakes his head. "Want to spend as little time in there as I can."

Rick grins at that. "I remember picking out Lori's and mine. Took me almost four hours and I still was up at night, worrying I picked the wrong ones."

"That ain't happenin' today," Daryl says, finally turning towards the store, Rick following behind. Inside the jewelry store, a saleswoman immediately approaches them with a smile on her face. "Weddin' rings," Daryl grunts at her and then follows her to a display case on the far side of the store, Rick coming up beside him.

The saleswoman is going over the selections, making her own suggestions, but Daryl honestly isn't listening to a word she is saying. His eyes are sharp, looking over all of the pairs of rings. He knows Beth isn't expecting this. She is expecting a quick wedding – which is fine with him – but at the same time, he knows its not what she really wants. Beth is a girl who wants the white wedding dress and flowers and wedding rings and Daryl is going to be doing his best to give her all of that.

It's a little out of order – having the kid before the marriage – but it's better late than never and Daryl wants to marry Beth. He hasn't told her that in so many words but he really does want to do this. Couldn't imagine himself doing it with anyone else; had never even thought about getting married before. And he was stunned when she was the one to ask him. He had never expected her to do that and he still feels like a jackass for not being able to say anything more than alright because Beth, the mom of his kid and the woman he wants to be with, deserves more than just an alright.

"Those two," Daryl interrupts the saleswoman in the middle of her never-ending speech and points to two white gold bands. "Those are the two."

"You sure?" Rick asks as the woman puts the two rings down in front of him.

Daryl looks at them for a moment, imagining one on Beth's finger and the other on his, and he gives his head a single head nod without thinking twice.

…

Beth laughs as the small audience cheers and she hears Axel give a sharp whistle.

"Thank you," she smiles into the microphone as she brushes her hair back from her face. "And thank you so much to all of you for coming out tonight to come hear me. I can't tell you how much I love that you are here. Especially my baby girl, Molly."

Molly is sitting in Daryl's lap at one of the tables in the coffee shop and as the others begin clapping, the baby begins clapping, too. Daryl smiles a little and when he looks from Molly to Beth, he keeps smiling and Beth smiles, too.

"This song obviously isn't mine but it's one I love singing and I _think_ Daryl and Molly don't mind listening it too much," she is still smiling and her fingers begin plucking the strings of the guitar strung across her lightly.

"Come up to meet you/tell you I'm sorry/you don't know how lovely you are," and then she begins singing into the microphone. "I had to find you/tell you I need you/tell you I set you apart."

This is her third time performing at the coffee shop on Wednesday night and Daryl has gone to each one and he sees the way she smiles at him each time; as if she is truly surprised that he would come to see her sing and play and he smiles back but deep down, he feels like some form of shit because why would she be so surprised to have him there? He knows he's not the best guy – he knows he needs to start treating her better – but he thinks it would have been obvious by now how much he cares about her. They live together, have a kid together and now, they're getting married. Hell. He kicked his own brother to the curb for her. And for himself, too, but mainly for her. He feels he has done so much for her but she's still surprised.

Beth sings the familiar song and Molly leans back against his chest as the baby's eyes are seeming unblinking towards her mama on the stage. Daryl keeps a strong arm around her so she doesn't go toppling and his eyes stare at Beth the whole time. Her lips are upturned in a smile even as she closes her eyes and sings and strums and she's so damn pretty, he still can't quite believe that she wants anything with him.

…

He never saw himself as a dad – never even thought about it – but when Beth told him she was pregnant, he dove right into it because this was Beth and there isn't anything he won't do for her. He read the books and rented the house and bought everything that their baby was going to need; things he had never had for himself.

The first time he held Molly, the first thing he thought about were his own parents and how it was possible for them to feel nothing towards him because he looked down at his daughter and knew, in that split second, that he would die for her if that was what he would have to someday do for her. Within seconds, his entire life became Molly and Beth and there was no going back.

He doesn't want to.

He loves when Molly's a little older – a few more months – and she can support herself and he can hold her up in one arm while he can do work with the other. He loves holding her and he ignores the stroller a lot of the time. When they go grocery shopping, when they go to the woods, when they visit Beth at the bakery. Beth laughs at him and tells him that he has to put her down sometimes and sometimes, he does. And when she starts to crawl and later, toddle around on somewhat unsteady legs, he beams with pride.

She's the best thing he's ever done and sometimes, he's still not entirely convinced she's his. Not like that. He knows Beth slept with no one else but him and she's not the sort of woman to get pregnant and lie about who the father is. Beth doesn't have a manipulative or malicious bone in her body. But he looks at Molly – and at Beth, too – and can't really believe that this is his life. That he has such good things in his life because he's a Dixon and when has a Dixon ever had such good, nice things without breaking them down and ruining them?

He looks at Beth and he wants to thank her for all of this. He wants to say so many things to her and she smiles faintly at him with her pale lips and pale skin and rosy cheeks and he feels the words on his tongue. But for some reason, he can never get them out and he just winds up grunting or not saying anything. And he's not blind. He sees the flicker of disappointment in her eyes because for a second, she thinks he would have said _something_ and all he wants to do is say something to her but something inside of himself is always stopping him from doing it.

But when she asks him to marry her, he's stunned but he's also kind of pissed because he's supposed to be the one to ask her and he _wants_ to ask her. But then he has to remind himself that if they wait for him to ask, they'll never get married because he can't even tell her how he feels about her.

…

Her hair has gotten longer over the past few months and they both find out that he loves burying his nose and his fingers in it. She smells so damn sweet all of the time, chocolate and sugar now mixed in with baby powder and it sometimes makes him light-headed; as if high. But he can't stop inhaling her. If he dies from an overdose of Beth, it'll be a hell of a way to go.

She teases him about the length of his hair but he notices that she loves tunneling her fingers through it and grip onto it when he's pumping between her thighs. She breathes out his name and whimpers in his ear and she quivers and clenches around him and every time he finishes inside of her, he breathes her in and thinks he never wants this to end. And he reminds himself that it's not going to because they're getting married and nothing is going to come between them.

…

"That's nice," he comments as they walk through the department store, heading towards the baby section and they pass racks of dresses in the women's section.

"Hmmm?" She turns and looks to see what he's referring to. A dress of white lace and he sees the way she looks at it for a moment and a faint smile brushes across her lips. "Oh… it's beautiful." Her hand reaches out to touch it but she stops herself as if she's almost afraid to. Her eyes catch the tag. "And really expansive."

"You should try it on," he says.

"I can't," she shakes her head but he can see her eyes looking longingly still at the dress. "I don't need it…"

"We're gettin' married. Need a dress," he shrugs. "Don't you wanna wear white?"

Beth looks at Molly in his arm, sucking on her pacifier. "Kind of silly of me to wear white when we already have a baby."

He just shrugs and after she studies the dress for another moment more, she finds her size on the rack and he smiles a little when she goes towards the dressing room.

…

She has talked to Axel and Oscar because she has decided they should get married at the motel. He frowns when she suggests it but she reminds him that it's where they first met and where she first fell in love with him.

"Ain't never heard of no motel weddin' before," he says.

"I know you were thinking we could just go to the courthouse but I was thinking, maybe, we could have a small ceremony," she is smiling but she looks terrified at the same time and he can't help but still frown. Why does she look so terrified?

"If that's what you want…" he shrugs and her smile bursts wider in response. "I'd have to wear a suit?" He grunts, still frowning a little.

She laughs softly at that. "I won't make you wear a suit," she says and steps into him, slipping her arms around his waist. "I just ask that you show up."

"Where else am I gonna be?" He asks and it's not what he wants to say to her. Not at all.

He wants to tell her that he can't wait to marry her and he'll marry her anywhere she wants to. He wants to tell her that he's gotten them rings and he'll wear a suit and it'll be every damn thing she has ever dreamt about for a wedding.

But as usual, he can't say what he wants and he's too gruff with her but she just keeps smiling as if she's never been happier.

…

For the past week, he's gotten this feeling in the pit of his stomach – a tightening and a soaring in his stomach like he's going over the first big drop of a rollercoaster. It's a feeling he used to get whenever Merle was around. But Merle hasn't been around in over a year now and Daryl has no idea where he is but that doesn't stop his stomach from lurching and he gets to start looking over his shoulder.

But Merle isn't there. He tells himself this at least twenty times a day. Merle is gone.

He goes to talk to the bank and Beth comes with him. She's offered to use the rest of her daddy's inheritance but Daryl refuses and gets a loan and then he goes to talk with Dale and make him an offer on the garage. They end with a handshake and signed papers and Beth laughs, throwing her arms around him. Daryl feels himself smiling and he hugs her close and then they walk around the garage together; _his_ garage and he hears himself rambling to her – and she must be rubbing off on him because when the hell has he ever rambled in his life? – about everything he wants to do. Beth stands in the middle of one of the bays, watching him with a smile, listening to every word he is saying.

He looks at her standing in the middle of what is now his auto garage and she is smiling because she's imaging everything he's talking about. She's the mom of his kid and the woman he's going to marry.

"I love you," he blurts out, finally able to say it and when he does, it sounds like she inhales too much air because she starts coughing.

"What?" She looks at him then, completely confused; completely in shock.

"I love you, Beth," he says because it's now as if since he has said it once, he is able to say it easier with each time. "You need to know that."

She's still staring at him as if she can hardly believe it. "I know it, Daryl," she nods. She then laughs a little and tears are welling in her eyes. "I just really needed to hear it," she then admits.

"I've loved you for a while. Just have never said it to anyone before. Was tryin' to show you," he shrugs his shoulders weakly.

Beth is still smiling and she comes up to him, slipping her arms around him. "We're going to be so happy," she says to him softly.

He puts his own arms around her. "Already am," he tells her quietly in return.

And she laughs again with the tears slipping down her cheeks.

…

They get married at the motel like Beth wanted – she in her white lace dress and Daryl wearing a clean white button-down shirt and a black tie with black slacks. He has Rick as his best man and they stand by the Reverend who will be marrying them. Sasha holds onto Molly's hand as the baby happily comes down the makeshift aisle, wearing a pink dress and waving at her daddy eagerly. Maggie is the maid of honor but she also walks Beth down the aisle and she and Daryl embrace for a moment before she takes Beth's hand and holds it out for Daryl to take.

The ceremony is short but Daryl feels his hands sweating as he stands there, looking at Beth the entire time. Prettiest damn girl he's ever seen and his hands are shaking when the Reverend asks about rings and Rick hands them to him. Beth looks at him because she had no idea he got them rings and he just shrugs because he doesn't know what else to do and he's almost embarrassed by that sparkling in her eyes.

He slips the ring onto her finger and she slips his ring onto his and once the Reverend pronounces them husband and wife, Beth throws her arms around his neck and kisses him as everyone around them claps loudly.

They have a reception at the Grimes' home – Rick and Lori both insisting – and it's simple and laid back and everyone enjoys the afternoon laughing and celebrating and eating the two-tier cake Beth has baked until just a couple of slices remain.

Near the end of the evening, Lori gives them each a bone-crushing embrace. "I am so glad I ignored Rick telling me to stop and insisted I set you two up."

Beth laughs and hugs her tightly in return.

"I'm glad I punched Shane in the nose," Daryl says to Rick as he hands him another beer, keeping it out of reach from Molly, who is in Daryl's arm, trying to make a grab for it as if it's for her.

Rick smirks and nods. "We've all wanted to punch Shane in the nose."

Daryl smirks a little himself and takes a swig of beer before bouncing Molly in his arms and the baby giggling before resting her head tiredly on his shoulder. He then looks to Beth as she is talking with Glenn and Oscar and it's obvious she's trying to get Oscar to smile and she looks so damn gorgeous with her long blonde hair and her white dress and it's amazing as hell to him that this is his wife.

And just like he has to keep telling himself that Merle isn't going to show up, he has to keep telling himself that Beth isn't going anywhere.

…

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**Thank you very much for reading and please review!**


	19. Part Nineteen

**Thank you an infinite amount of times for your support and love of this story. **

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…

**Part Nineteen. **

Their life doesn't change that much after the wedding; not that she really expects it to. She goes back to the bakery and he starts work on the garage, getting it ready for its grand reopening and it seems as if they get offers from everyone in Evergreen about watching Molly for them while they're working. The baby seems to love being with Oscar and Axel because Oscar and Axel have Cornelius and she spends her days, bursts with laughter and crawling after the cat around the motel office. And every time Beth comes to get her in the afternoon after the bakery is closed, she cries because Cornelius can't come, too.

Daryl tries to explain to her that Cornelius is an outdoor cat and they can't bring him home and make him an indoor cat. Molly doesn't understand though and she cries and throws fits and she wails and Beth doesn't know what to do because she doesn't want to just give her daughter anything she wants if she screams loud enough for it.

She probably should have told Daryl that though because two days later, he comes home from work and he is holding something in his coat. Beth knows what it is before he even pulls it out and when Molly sees the black and gray cat, she squeals with delight and Beth smiles as Daryl shows Molly how to hold the cat gently and he catches her eye as she watches them and he smiles at her and gives her a shrug. And she can only laugh at him and shake her head.

…

She tries to remember what it was like sleeping without Daryl. She knows she obviously did sleep without him for many years and there was that little bit of time when Merle came back and Daryl was gone but now, he's here beside her every night. It's not like in the movies or romance novels. They aren't curled together, cuddling, every night. Sometimes, he steals all of the blankets and sometimes, she kicks him in her sleep but sometimes, she wakes up and her head is on his chest and she hears his steady heartbeat in her ear and she has never felt more well-rested.

He has to go to New Orleans for a weekend to pick up some parts and the Saturday night he is gone, she tosses and turns and winds up sitting downstairs on the couch for most of the night, watching a string of movies on Lifetime. She knows it's silly that she can't sleep without him but when he comes home the next day and she practically leaps into his arms, she sees how tired he looks, too, and maybe he can't sleep without her either.

That night, in bed together, they don't go to sleep together right away. Instead, there are kisses and touches and soft panting for air and she wants to laugh at both of them for being so addicted to one another like this, acting they had been separated for years instead of just for one night. But then she reminds herself that there is nothing wrong with a husband and wife being so deeply in love, they need each other like this. In fact, this is the sort of marriage she always dreamt of having for herself someday.

She gasps his name and arches her back and tugs him in closer to her. He almost has her feeling as if she's going to shake right off the bed and she wonders if they should spend more nights apart so they'll have more reunions like this.

…

Molly is turning three. They have now put forth enough money to put a down payment down on the house and Daryl's garage has a steady stream of business and a steady flow of cash and Beth's bakery is doing better than she ever hoped. Some rich kids from Charlotte were passing through – though who just passed through Evergreen, she still didn't know – and had stopped at the bakery. Suddenly, she has these trust fund kids in love with her chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and they are paying for her to ship cakes up to Charlotte for them.

Sometimes, Beth catches herself just standing there for a moment and looking around as if she can't quite believe that this is her life. She has a husband and a daughter and a successful business and good friends and she is so happy with everything. And she knows her daddy would be happy, too, because this is what he meant when he wrote that letter years earlier. He wanted her to go out and find something for herself and she has. She has found the best life for herself.

…

They run into Andrea in the grocery store and Beth isn't sure why she feels nervous. Molly is sitting in the cart, chattering to herself as she eats from and plays with a box of animal crackers. Daryl is pushing the cart and Beth is going over their list and as they turn into the cereal aisle, they almost bump right into Andrea.

She smiles at them and Beth smiles back and sees that Andrea's eyes don't even linger on Daryl. She just says hello to him and to Molly and says what an adorable little girl she is and tells Beth that she is going to call her about some coffee cake for a meeting at her law firm that she is going to need baked. Beth smiles and tells her to call her anytime and then Andrea is gone with a wave.

When it is just them again, Beth exhales a breath of air.

"What?" Daryl asked and he is looking at her with amusement shining in his eyes.

She looks at him and almost smiles, shaking her head. "I don't know. I was just nervous about seeing her and having her… having her around you."

He smirks at that and begins pushing the cart again, Beth walking beside him. "Andrea liked me, yeah. Wasn' a secret. But it was only because she wanted to go slummin' for a while. Wasn' more than that."

Beth nods because she knows that.

"'sides, Shane and her are hookin' up with each other now. Rick told me," he shrugs.

"Ew," she can't help but laugh at that because the idea of Shane still bothers her and she's so glad she doesn't see him around that much anymore. "Why did he tell you?"

Daryl shrugs again. "Like to know what Shane's up to. Make sure he's stayin' away from you," he says completely casual and Beth just looks at him, surprised and a little confused, but Daryl doesn't say anything more on the topic and grabs a box of Fruit Loops that they have a coupon for, tossing it into the cart.

…

They go to the farm often on Sundays because Molly adores her Aunt Maggie and seeing the cows in the field. This Sunday though, Maggie races out to meet them and before Daryl can even turn the truck off, Maggie has stuck her hand through the open window and both sisters begin screeching. Beth scrambles out of the truck and they embrace one another, practically jumping up and down.

"Glenn and I are getting married!" Maggie exclaims to Daryl as he pulls Molly from her car seat into his arms.

"'bout damn time," Daryl says but he's smiling and then Maggie is hugging him and Molly both and Daryl pats a hand on her back.

Beth and Maggie spend the rest of the day talking about weddings and Daryl helps Glenn mend one of the fences and they talk about crops and bikes rather than weddings and when they all come together for dinner that evening, Maggie is telling Glenn everything she wants and Glenn just nods his head, going along with it all.

On the way home, Molly is sound asleep in the back and Beth looks at Daryl, a faint smile across her lips and her hand reaching out to touch his thigh.

"I'm glad we got married the way we did," she says.

"Yeah?" He glances at her before back to the road.

She nods. "Maggie's going to be a complete Bridezilla. You would never think that looking at her but the next few months are going to be hard on Glenn."

"If he's smart, he'll just agree with anythin' she says," Daryl says. "Easiest way to deal with you Greene women."

Beth looks at him and she wants to argue but she laughs instead because he's right and he smirks a little, taking her hand from his thigh and twining their fingers together. She rubs circles on his wrist for the rest of the way home.

…

"Daddy?" Her voice is tired and the knock is soft and Beth almost moans in disappointment when Daryl lifts his head from between her legs. Even in the semi-darkness of their bedroom, she can see the glistening on the beard on his chin and she had just been grinding against his face seconds before but their daughter is here now, wanting them, and that is more important than an orgasm.

Daryl stands up as Beth pulls the sheet over her naked body and he wipes at his lips and chin before going to the door, opening it.

"What are you doin' out of bed, girl?" Daryl asks in that gruff yet gentle voice of his.

"Mama's screaming," Molly said and peeks past Daryl into the room.

Beth feels her face explode in a blush and she pulls the sheet tighter around her as she sits up. "I'm sorry, baby. I was having a bad dream. I didn't mean to wake you."

Daryl looks back at her with a smirk and he then bends down, lifting Molly up in her arms, the stuffed fawn in her arms as always. "I'm takin' care of your mama. Don't you worry. Now I'm takin' you to bed so you can go back to sleep."

Molly yawns and nods and gives Beth a tired wave as Daryl carries her down the hall. And when he comes into the bedroom again a few minutes later, he closes and locks the door and Beth can't help but start laughing softly. Daryl doesn't say anything. He just gives that rare smile of his and shakes his head as he goes back to their bed. She moves the sheet off so her naked body is exposed again and he sinks back down onto his knees, her legs draping over his shoulders and his face happily burying between them once more.

This time, Beth grabs a pillow and bites down on the corner of it to keep herself from screaming again.

…

They go to the diner one night for dinner and T-Dog has hired a new waitress to cover what used to be Beth's shifts. Her nametag says Tara and it's her first night and she seems completely frazzled. Thankfully, Martinez is the night cook as always and he knows Daryl wants his burger medium rare and Beth doesn't want salt on her fries and she forgets Daryl's drink order.

"What's with these waitresses T keeps hirin'?" He asks. "Always forgettin' my drink orders."

Beth rolls her eyes and nudges his leg with her foot beneath the table. She then hands Molly one of the French fries before taking one for herself.

"I forgot your drink order but you fell in love with me anyway. Should I be worried about Tara?" Beth asks, her eyes twinkling with her teasing.

Daryl just smirks. "If she starts singin' Taylor Swift to me and showin' me how to make S'mores, better be careful."

Beth can only laugh.

…

Molly is just four when Daryl decides to take her hunting for the first time. He wants to start teaching her how to track and how to be quiet before anything else and Beth comes with them because being out in the woods with Daryl is still one of her favorite things.

She loves seeing the way Daryl smiles with pride when he teaches Molly and she listens to his instructions, being light on her feet, being as quiet as him. She is just like her daddy. There always seems to be so much more of Daryl than Beth in their daughter but Beth doesn't mind. Why should she? She loves seeing Daryl and their daughter together. It never surprised her that he would be an absolutely amazing father even if he, himself, didn't really believe that of himself for the longest time.

That night, they camp out beside the fire ring Daryl first took her to and they make S'mores and Beth sings songs and braids Molly's hair and when she is asleep, she and Daryl sit there and stare up at the stars like they always do.

…

The call comes at a few minutes past one o'clock in the morning.

It's Merle and he's in jail in Wheeling, West Virginia. She watches as Daryl takes down all of the information with a lump in her throat and lead in her stomach. She's been waiting for this. Since he came back to her, since she was pregnant and gave birth to Molly and they got married – through all of it, she has been waiting for Merle to return to their lives.

Daryl throws a few clothes into a gym bag quickly and she stands there, wondering how she can ask him not to go because this is Merle and he's already left her once for him but this time, it's not just her. It's Molly, too, and Daryl can't leave their daughter.

But the words clump in her throat and she exhales a shaky breath as she follows him down the stairs. Molly's in the living room, watching _Sleeping Beauty_ as she is prone to do at any time of the day, and Daryl scoops her up, hugging her tightly and kissing her head.

"You be good for your mama," he tells her. "I'll be back soon."

"Will you?" Beth blurts out before she can stop herself.

Daryl stares at her as he slowly puts Molly back down on her feet. "Course I will," he says and he doesn't look confused at all as to why she is asking that. He comes to her and leans down, kissing her. "I'll call you when I get there," he promises and she fights the urge to grab hold of his shirt and keep him there with her.

All she does is go out on the porch and watches him drive away.

…

He's late when he calls but it doesn't matter because she's not asleep.

"I can go see him in the mornin'. I need to get some sleep first," he yawns.

"How was the drive?" She asks, still feeling so nervous, she can throw up.

"Fine. Long." He yawns again. "I gotta get some sleep. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay," she says and she selfishly wants him to stay on the line because suddenly, she remembers them from a few years ago – the first time this happened – and she still sometimes wishes she had been able to hold onto him better.

"Love you," he says, almost mumbling as he drifts off.

"Love you, too," she says earnestly. Almost desperately, hoping that it's enough.

…

He doesn't call the next day.

She calls him and leaves him four voice messages, hoping he's alright, telling him to call her, telling him he _needs_ to call her and she bites at her nails, her stomach in a knot the entire day because her phone stays silent and she has no idea what's going on right now up in Wheeling; what Merle is saying to his brother.

She tries to hide it from Molly and they spend the day baking sugar cookies and playing with her dollhouse and Pudge the cat and when Molly asks when is daddy coming home, Beth gives her a small smile and promises her soon.

Daryl better not make a liar out of her.

…

Her eyes snap open when she hears the familiar rumble of a truck outside and she instantly looks to the clock. It's almost four a.m. and she can't believe she had been able to fall asleep at all.

She races from their bed and down the stairs and throws the door open. He is just getting out of the truck when she throws herself against him, causing him to stumble back but he holds onto her and holds onto the ground with firm feet. And she can't help but start crying because he's back. He saw Merle and he came back and the past few days, she has been so worried, she hasn't eaten anything and she's been so scared but he's back. He's here.

"I called you," she said, pulling her head back so she could look at him.

"My phone's dead and I didn' stop to charge it. I just wanted to get out of there."

"What happened?" She asks.

He shrugs and she feels his fingers through the flannel shirt of his she has stolen to sleep in. His eyes are looking into hers and no where else. "Merle went one way and I guess I went the other."

And Beth has so many questions still but those words are more than enough right now and all she can do is exhale a breath. He wipes a thumb across one of her damp cheeks and she closes her eyes, hugging him again.

…

She wakes up to laughter and pots banging in the kitchen. She is surprised Daryl isn't still beside her considering how exhausted he had been and she pulls herself from the bed, heading down the stairs and going into the kitchen. She leans in the doorway and smiles as she watches Daryl and Molly standing at the counter, making more of a mess than pancakes but Molly is laughing and Daryl is smiling and Beth doesn't know how long she stands there before they spot her and Molly proudly shows her the pancake batter that is full of lumps. Beth declares it to be the best pancake batter she has ever seen though and she kisses them both and Daryl tells her to sit down because he and Molly are in charge of breakfast today.

And they are the absolute worst pancakes she has ever tasted and she smiles when she sees Daryl grimacing too but Molly is so happy and they eat them and tell her how delicious they are and their eyes meet from across the table.

And she thinks of the path Daryl has taken – asking her out and having this house and daughter and marrying her – and she watches him as he listens to Molly telling him all about something from her preschool class and Beth doesn't wonder if he's happy. He doesn't have to say it. She can just see it because she knows him. She knows she knows him better than anyone.

And she knows that no one knows her better than him and this path she has taken for herself – all starting with leaving the farm and stopping for gas in Evergreen, Georgia – was the path she was always meant to take. She knows she's happy. And she knows that he knows it, too.

…

* * *

**The end. **

**Thank you so much for reading and please review one last time!**

***A Special A/N: my sister has recently passed away, her funeral just this week, and I am going through a lot of things. I don't know what I will write next. I am waiting for something truly wonderful to inspire me for my next Daryl/Beth story. I am sorry to say though that my muse for _From Afar_ and _Not a Bad Thing_ has completely disappeared and I will not be continuing either of those. I'm sorry to those who were enjoying those two. I hope you understand though. Thank you. **


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